Heni de Lutteroth dressed up as the Black Devil for the Comte Walewski's Ball.

An uncut carte-de-visite sheet of eight poses used by Disderi's studio as a proof sheet. Numbered "41193" and named "Lutteroth" on the verso of the image. There are other portraits of Lutteroth in Disderi's studio with different costumes.

Henri de Lutteroth was probably the grandson of the Austrian banker Henri de Lutteroth and the son of the historian of French Protestantism, also called Henri de Lutteroth [Paul Frecker].

An extract about Lutteroth's costume, from the first volume of Princess Metternich's memoirs, "My Years in Paris":
‘Monsieur de Lutteroth happened to be at the same ball. He was a dreadful fop and was - very rightly - disliked by everyone who knew him. He came attired as 'A Son of the Night'! The man who wore this costume was a fool, but the costume itself was magnificent. It consisted of voluminous sapphire-blue breeches, embroidered in silver and veiled with tulle of the same shade. The sapphire-blue jacket was also veiled with tulle and strewn with diamonds, and it was fastened with a superb crescent made of diamonds. People stood in rows to see him pass by, and incredible as it may seem, though they looked upon him as an object of ridicule - and made no secret of it - he thought they were not only admiring him, but envying him into the bargain!’ [Thanks to Paul Frecker for this information]

Albumen print from a wet collodium glass negative, numbered 41193 in the negative.
ca. 18,9 x 14,1 cm

A nice piece of early photographic history. Although Disdéri's contact prints are not extremely rare in themselves, this one is of exceptional quality with a historically interesting subject.

Literature:
Alex Novak: For the Love of the Image: A Selection of 110 Photographs, Chalfont 2017 (page 15)
Serge Plantureux: Disderi’s Multipose Portraits at Count Waleski’s Masquerade Ball, Weekly transmission 28-2017 (page 1-6)
Elizabeth Anne McCauley, A.A.E. Disdéri and the Carte de Visite Portrait Photograph, 1985