3-039-195 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of the International Exhibition, South Kensington, 1871. The opening of the new galleries '...adjoining the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences, along the sides of the garden of the Horticultural Society...his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales being the chief personage on that occasion...The Engraving on our front page represents the scene on the balcony outside the Conservatory, where the Prince stood to repeat, to the crowd in the garden below, the declaration he had just before made upon the dais or raised floor within the Conservatory, having come out, with a flourish of trumpets, through the glass doors behind the dais. The Prince made a good figure, dressed in his General's scarlet uniform...Beside him were the Countess of Flanders and Princess Mary of Cambridge - a striking contrast as to personal appearance, but vying with each other in the richness of their attire, the Countess being dressed in a handsome pink silk, with grey tunic, and the Princess in a becoming blue, with lace trimmings...As soon as the Prince of Wales had declared the Exhibition open, a cheer was raised by the whole assembly, a salute of artillery was fired at Kensington barracks, and the band of the Horse Guards struck up "God Save the Queen".' From "Illustrated London News", 1871.