Lot 229: TENNYSON, ALFRED, Lord (1809-1892, poet)

PORTRAIT BY JOHN JABEZ EDWIN MAYALL (1813-1901), vintage cabinet photograph, albumen print, head and shoulders, profile facing right, SIGNED BY TENNYSON on the mount ('Tennyson'), printed imprint at foot on recto of original mount 'Mayall's Photographic Studio, 224, Regent Street, London', with a similar imprint on the verso, framed and glazed, size of image 7½ x 5 inches (19 x 13 cm), overall size 14 x 11½ inches (36 x 29 cm), [1864]

TENNYSON'S FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPH OF HIMSELF, SIGNED.

Tennyson inscribed an example of 'The Dirty Monk': 'I prefer The Dirty Monk to the others of me...Except one by Mayall' (Robert Woof, Tennyson 1809-1892: A Centenary Celebration, The Wordsworth Trust, 1992, no. 21, p. 16). Julia Margaret Cameron was not much pleased with the exception: 'The Laureate has since said of it that he likes it better than any photograph that has been taken of him except one by Mayall, that "except" speaks for itself. The comparison seems too comical. It is rather like comparing one of Madame Toussaud's waxwork heads to one of Woolner's ideal heroic busts' (Cameron, Annals of the Glass House).

This photograph has an excellent provenance, being inscribed on the verso: 'Given to H.M. Moncrieff by The Honble Hallam Tennyson at Dedworth, Haslemere, Sussex. 5th August 1887. The day before the Poet Laureate's 78th Birthday. This Photograph was taken about 15 years ago.'