ST HELENA.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Photo album of St Helena and Madeira, with a mounted fragment of wallpaper from Longwood House. A varied collection of views, focusing on areas lived in or visited by Napoleon during his exile. There are shots of Jamestown, the governor's residence, Napoleon's grave, Longwood House, and a masonic celebration of Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887. We have traced only one other fragment of wallpaper from the dining room at Longwood House, sold at auction in 2005.This album was likely compiled by an acquaintance of St Helena's governor, Sir William Grey-Wilson (1852-1926, in post from 1887 to 1897), who is pictured in two group shots. The majority of photographs show the scenery of St Helena, supplemented with a few of Madeira and Funchal. The album opens with printed illustrations of Longwood House and Napoleon's grave as well as the title page of William Forsyth's History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena (1853). A landscape shot of the governor's residence is captioned, "Sir Hudson Lowe lived here during Napoleon's exile", while a photograph of Briars Pavilion is captioned "Napoleon visited here frequently during the first years of his exile". There are three photographs of Napoleon's grave and two of Longwood House.The facsimile wallpaper found in Longwood House's dining room today matches the included piece both in colour and design. Famously, the high arsenic content of the green pigment in Napoleon's bedroom wallpaper has been identified as a possible cause of his

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