Collection | Victorian Additional Papers |
Description | Becker writes that Prince Albert wishes Kanné to obtain photographs of pictures and drawings by Raphael, as marked in the accompanying volume by Passavant [not present], during his visit to Italy. He should obtain permission, as a favour to Prince Albert, from the authorities of the public institutions involved and from the owners of private collections. He should engage the most skilful photographers in each place and should buy the negatives, making clear that they are entirely for the Prince's private collection and not for publication. He should ask the British Consul in Rome, Freeborn, to arrange for the plates to be sent, carefully packed, to London. This is presumably the letter of authorisation to which Kanné refers in his letter to Becker (see VIC/ADDA10/85/252), asking him to send a duplicate to Milan, which Becker did (see his letter VIC/ADDA10/85/253), and was presumably written in French, rather than the German in which they otherwise communicated with each other, so as to be intelligible to the Italian authorities and collectors. |