The album of 189 carte-de-visites (CDVs), owned by the family of Joseph Antoine Milsand (1817–86), his wife, Laura Thérèse (née Henry, 1826–96), and their daughter, Claire Thérèse Blanc (née Milsand, 1853–1934), was acquired in Brittany by a French book dealer. He dismounted the CDVs and proceeded to offer them individually on eBay in January 2012. Soon afterwards, one image in particular, that of Sir Richard Owen (1804–92), the eminent zoologist, was acquired by an English buyer familiar with Owen’s work. Realizing the importance of these CDVs, including the numerous likenesses of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and their son, Pen, this buyer secured the album and remaining photographs. About forty had been sold previously; fortunately, he was able to contact the buyers of the sold CDVs directly and was successful in buying back all but twenty-two. Those he was unable to acquire were CDVs of Charles Francis Adams, Élie Berthet, Louis Bouilhet, Robert Browning, Antoine Chanzy, Alexandre Decamps, Taxile Delord, Paul Féval, Gustave Flaubert, Jules de Goncourt, Robert Lowe, George MacDonald, Aimé Paris, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Charles Renouvier, John Ruskin, Eugène Spuller, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Anthony Trollope, Étienne Vacherot, Francis Wey, and an unidentified man wearing a Red Cross emblem on the sleeve of his jacket. Screen shots of these have been captured and are here included. Thus, all the CDVs that were in the album when it was broken up and sold, are represented.
The album included two CDVs identified on their verso as “fils Browning.” In May 2012 the English buyer contacted the editors of The Brownings’ Correspondence to verify this attribution. They proved not to be likenesses of the poets’ son. The identification is in the hand of Henriette Blanc (1887–1970), the daughter of Henri Blanc (1839–87) and his wife, Claire, unlikely to have sufficient knowledge by the time the album came into her possession. Eventually, the two were tentatively identified as children of Nelson Vene (1835–88) and his wife, Anne Caroline Vene (née Blanc, 1840–1924), sister of Henri Blanc.
The album was acquired by Wedgestone Press and is presented here by permission.
For those readers who study the accompanying Milsand Correspondence on this site, the family trees given below will be helpful.
