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A Gift Fit for a Prince : Notman’s Maple Box
Robert G. Wilson
Prince of Wales Copy
The set of photographs presented to the Prince of Wales was described in a series of letters between William Notman and various government officials (some of which have survived and are now in the National Archives of Canada) and in two contemporary published accounts. In spite of these, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the original set presented to the Prince of Wales. Where is the original set today? What did the set which was presented to the Prince actually look like? Where and when did the presentation take place?
On the request of Stanley Triggs, then curator of the Notman Photographic Archives, an extensive search of the Royal collections has been done and the original box given to the Prince cannot be located. So exactly what the original set looked like is not really known. Since the set in the McCord Museum was publicized as a duplicate, we should assume that the original looked like the set illustrated here. However, the three contemporary reports of this set of photographs differ in the description of the box and its contents.
The first description exists in a letter dated 1 October 1860, which says that the set contained 315 photographs, in two portfolios:
I have examined the collection of photographs furnished by W. Notman, of Montreal, enclosed in two Morocco-bound Portfolios, and a handsome birds-eye maple case; — with the view of offering an opinion as to their value.
The photographs, mounted on 54 sheets of stout Bristol-board, consist of 10 of the largest sized single plates yet taken in Canada; 13 having two views mounted, of ordinary dimensions - and 31 embracing nine stereoscopic slide views on each separate sheet.
The earliest published description of the gift appeared in October 1860 while the Prince was still in North America. William Notman sent a description of the box and a copy of his stereoview of the set to The London Photographic News which reported that it contained a total of 345 photographs in two portfolios:
CANADIAN PHOTOGRAPHS - We learn from messers. Notman, whose stereographs of Canada we noticed last week, that a set of their photographs was presented to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, by the Provincial Government of Canada. The set comprised 55 sheets imperial 28 ½ x 20 ½, on which were mounted 10 photographs 22 x 18, 20 photographs 12 x 10, and 315 stereoscopic views — all of Canada. They were placed in two handsome morocco portfolios, with solid silver clasps. These again are contained in a case of bird’s-eye maple, with solid silver mountings, handles, etc. One of the slides we received was a photograph of this presentation series.
While these two descriptions differ in the number of photographs in the set, they still match the McCord version of the box reasonably well, assuming that some of the original sheets have been removed from the duplicate set and used for other purposes over the years. This is a reasonable assumption as Notman did adjust the contents of the maple box for different events. When sent to the 1862 Exhibition, the box included only seven mammoth plates, 19 10 x 12 inch photographs, several different sheets of stereoviews and ten sheets of portraits.
