This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Glass plate negatives

Albert and Victoria’s collection of glass plate negatives show photographers’ working methods

HILLS & SAUNDERS (1852 TO DATE)

RCIN 2082443

Glass plate negative of a three-quarters length portrait of an unidentified man seated in a leather upholstered chair. He faces three-quarters to the right and turns his head to look at the viewer. He rests his right hand upon his right thigh and has his left elbow hooked over the back of the chair.

The glass plate negative has been photographed showing the coated side and therefore the image appears laterally reversed. Prints from this negative do not seem to exist in the Collection.
  • Creator(s)

    Hills & Saunders (1852 to date) (photographer)

  • Acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert