Album, titled on upper cover "The Queen's Jubilee Procession. London. June 21st. 1887"

Francis FRITH & Co. (photographers). 

[Queen Victoria]. Album, titled on upper cover "The Queen's Jubilee Procession. London. June 21st. 1887". [Reigate, Surrey: Francis Frith & Co.Ltd., c. 1887]. Oblong folio (15 x 10 1/4in; 381 x 260mm). 24 albumen prints (each approx. 7 5/8 x 11 12/in; 193 x 292mm), 12 signed in the negative 'F.F. & Co', but almost certainly all are by Francis Frith & Co., the photos are mounted recto only of 24 thick card leaves. (Some fading to photos [see images], occasional small chips to card mounts). Disbound and loosely inserted within original binding with cloth to the covers, cream moire'd endpapers (Spine lacking, covers detached).

Provenance: Charles Henry Tilson Marshall (1841 - 1927, officer in the Indian Army and ornithologist, inscription, presented to); Royal United Services Institute (bookplate, noting the gift of the album in 1911 by 'Colonel C H T Marshall I.A.', with ink disposal stamp).

A specially bound selection of images - the images all seem to be by Francis Frith & Co. and the gilt titling to the upper cover of the album suggest that, perhaps, they were also responsible for 'publishing' this album.

June 20th, 1887, was the actual date of the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. On the day the Queen with her family breakfasted at Frogmore, and, in the evening, she hosted an enormous banquet at Buckingham Palace.

But, the largest public spectacle was held over until the 21st. As the present album records, the queen traveled in procession, starting from Buckingham Palace, through the streets of London to Westminster Abbey. A contemporary account noted that the queen's carriage was accompanied by "a bodyguard of seventeen princes in military uniform, superbly mounted and wearing their jewels and orders.": European Royalty was well represented as were kingdoms from further afield: India being particularly prominent (the role of India in the British Empire was emphasized by having a troop of Indian cavalry in the procession close to the queen's carriage). The Abbey had had a mass of temporary seating erected allowing for a congregation described as numbering '10,000 invited guests' to be present. After the service of thanksgiving, the procession returned to the Palace via Trafalgar Square, and that evening "illuminations" lit the skies of England: "On rugged cliffs and beacon hills, on mountain peaks and lofty heaths and commons, great bonfires blazed."