André Philippe Alfred Régnier, Duke of Massa (1837-1913) Personal album of the Duc de Massa, December 1859-May 1860. Self-portrait of the Duc de Massa. Eugène Roger. Marie Petit. Countess Marianne de Noé. Héléna de Noé. Eugène Desmarest. Baroness Roger. Félicie Dosne. Élise Thiers. Élise Messean. Adrien Dosne. Baron de Varenne. Éléonore Boyer. Staircase of the photographer's studio. Baron de Crisenoy. Henriette Roger. Colonel Fulcher. Fernand de Schickler. Adolphe Thiers. Speech. Countess Roger. Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager. Count of Mesgrigny. Counts of Pallars. Pierre Luc Charles Ciceri. Countess de Lapeyrouse. In-folio album in half black morocco, composed of 42 prints on salted-aluminum paper, mounted on cardboard. Models' names and dates in ink on mounts. Silk presentation leaflet for Les commentaires de César by the Marquis de Massa, performed at the Palais de Compiègne in 1865 (with the participation of the Prince Imperial, Viscount Aguado and Viollet-le-Duc), as well as a birth certificate for Charles Philippe Jacques de Massa at the end of the volume. Print sizes: from 12 x 13 to 22 x 16 cm Possibly trained in calotype by Édouard Baldus in the early 1850s, Alfred Régnier, Duc de Massa, excelled in the art of portraiture, which he practiced in a studio annexed to one of his residences - perhaps the Hôtel de Massa, on the corner of rue de la Boétie and avenue des Champs-Élysées. Columns, wall hangings, carpets and balustrades: the set-up is reminiscent of the codes of studio photography, this time without any commercial purpose, hosting only members of his family (his half-brother, his mother) or his social circle (such as the Dosne-Thiers family). But it is above all his self-portraits in costume - an echo of his passion for the theater - that are striking for their elegant staging. His relatively limited output then evolved towards the use of collodion glass negatives. This album, dated 1860, is a rare example of a practice that hardly continued beyond this period.