The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-27
THE QUEENS PHOTOGRAPHS.
Veteran Firm That Has Taken
More Than Amy other.

More Than Any other.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.
To the Messrs. Downey must be as
cribed the credit Of having taken more
royal photographs than any other frm-or
any other half-dozen Arms put together
in existence. They have, to begin with,
photographed the queen over hundred
times, and have taken. In addition, almost
every crowned head In Europe, and not a
few Asiatic monarchs. The late Emperor
of the French sat TO them, as did the late
Emperor Frederick of Germany; they
have taken three Cars Of Russia, three
sultans of Turkey, the King and Queen
Of Denmark and the King and Queen Of
the Bele ans, and host Of others with
royal blood In their veins. William Dow
ney. the head of the famous firm, is a still
energetic gentleman of some seventy sum
mers. Weight Of years has led him TO
relegate the more arduous duties connect
ed with the. business-the principal OF
which IS the photographing OF the queen
and her famiIy--to his son, W. u. DOW
ney. We found both these gentlemen in
their Ebury street studio. In which one
OF her majesty's maids OF honor had just
been photographed. We we're Informed
that the lady In question completed the
eight" and that now the Nessrs. Dow
ney will be able to carry out an excellent
idea conceived early In the spring-name-
", to make picture of the queen sur
rounded by her maids OF honor.
Our primary duty was to put some in
qulries regarding the photograph which
her majesty had chosen, out of all those
recently taken Of her as the picture by
which che wishes 20 be represented at
this, her diamond jubilee. And let 1t be
noted that the queen has preferred this
photograph to all the drawings and paint
ings OF her at present extant Father and
son regard the choice not alone as high
honor TO themselves, but TO photography
Ia general And well may they be proud
Of the selected portrait, for her majesty
might quite reasonably have elected to
be represented by the reproduction Of an
oil paiting by a famous academician. BY
foregoing their rights Of reproduction the
Messrs. Downey has acted In patriotic
and generous spirit. Every journal-home,
foreign and colonial-of whatever price,
size or nature. may reproduce this photo
graph by simply obtaining the pho
tographers' permission so TO do. What
the actual loss In hard cash will be 10 the
firm through this concession we cannot
say but II cannot be put at less than sew
eral thousands OF pounds. The commem-
grafton photograph-6079 In the Arms
miniature Catalogue - the uumutf OF Nue
pose--as Il mas come to be called by the
trade, Is being reproduced In every style
known to the Photographic art. Silver
and carbon prints are being made Of II, Il
is appearing In piatinotype. Woodbury.
type, collotype, chromo-collotype auto
type. photo-ilthography, photo etching
half-tone engraving, heligravure, typo
pravure, photogravure and the new REM
brandt photogravure.
And now for some "reminiscences. 1T Is
thlrty-fve years" says the head OF the
firm, In answer 20 our question, "since we
took our first photograph for her majesty
IL was Of the Hartley Colliery accident,
and the picture we made was Of the brok-
on beam, which. you will remember. caus-
cd a number OF men 20 remain entombcd IN
the pit for many hours. -Four or five years
after that we took our FIRST photograph
OF the queen herself, AZ Balmoral But
Wll show you the album In which we
nave preserved every likeness we have
taken OF her majesty and other members
Of the royal family"
The album Is brought, Mr.. Downey
turns the pages. and we behold the queen
as Hhe was IN tho sixties. the seventies.
the eighties, and as she appears III the
present decade. Needless 20 say. these