Empress of Germany

Printed at bottom of card-mount:-

silk:
cm deep by cm wide

by Godden:
The portrait shown above is sometimes referred to as 'Empress Augusta Victoria of Germany'.

Augusta Victoria was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. She was born on 22 October 1858, married Wilhelm II in February 1881, and died on 11 April 1921.

The back-label title is simply EMPRESS OF GERMANY, and it was first included on label 31+29a of 1895. Like most Stevens portrait silks of Continental personages, this subject is now extremely rare.

Within the narrative, Godden notes that this portrait is recorded as facing both right and left - as shown above

Other comments:
Augusta Victoria was the wife of Wilhelm II, Emperor of German [so572 on this site], and the last Kaiserin of Germany.

Godden recorded two un-mounted silk portraits that he identified as being of Princess Hermine of Schonaich-Carolath. He subsequently removed that identification, and for many years these two portraits have been known simply as " Un-known Ladies ". With the aid of various internet searches, both these portraits have now been identified as those of Augusta Victoria.

There is now recorded three versions of Augusta Victoria (although it is still unknown why there are so many):

1. Augusta Victoria (body facing forward, head facing half left) - this version is mounted in a typical Stevens mount, but there is no weavers name.

2. Augusta Victoria (body facing half right, head facing half left) - this version is un-mounted.

3. Augusta Victoria, Empress of Germany - the silk portraits above.

A reduced size version of this silk portrait is shown below, adjacent to a photograph of both Victoria and Wilhelm II. It can be seen that the silk of Victoria is identical to this photograph.