Image courtesy of Sotheby’s

The two ‘unrecorded’ images – depicting the photographer’s personal maid Mary Hillier – are among 32 ‘large scale’ portraits contained in an album found earlier this year.

Billed as a ‘highly important’ find, the album is expected to raise at least £250,000 when it goes on sale at Sotheby’s in London on 10 December.

‘It is one of only eleven known albums compiled by Cameron with her own photographs and represents hours of meticulous work,’ said a Sotheby’s spokesperson.

The photographer put the album together for her nephew, the artist Valentine Cameron Prinsep for his 31st birthday on 14 February 1869.

Sotheby’s adds: ‘The album contains carefully chosen portraits of her friends and family including leading figures in Victorian society such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sir John Herschel and her goddaughter Julia Jackson (the mother of Virginia Woolf).’

The seller wishes to remain anonymous, according to Sotheby’s.


Image courtesy of Sotheby’s