The Royal Danish Stables and the 2007 Carriage Auction

Abstract

EIGHT CARRIAGES, a sleigh and miscellaneous carriage accoutrements from the Royal Danish Stables were sold at auction at the Mews of Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen on 24 November 2007. The highest price was fetched by a black landau built in Russia and ornamented with the crowned royal arms of Denmark encircled by the Chain and Order of the Elephant. Five of the carriages three coupes, a landaulet and a milord were by the noted Copenhagen carriage maker, Henry Fife. The sleigh was a two-seater in the shape of a sea-shell and equipped with a snow shield. The Danish court continued to travel regularly by horse-drawn conveyance until the year 1912. Born in 1818, King Christian IX (reigned 1863-1906) rode in an automobile only once in his lifetime. This occurred in the vicinity of Frankfurt am Main on 26 July 1904, when the King rode with the director of the Adlerwerke factory at the wheel and his own Physician in Ordinary safely at his side.1 It was not a pleasant experience. Thereafter and until the death of his successor, the Danish court, when travelling on the highway, used horse-drawn vehicles or rode on horseback. Many carriages were required. Whenever the Queen left the palace, ladies-inwaiting followed in a carriage of their own. The royal family was active, and there were often visitors who needed a carriage as well as horses and coachmen, not least during family gatherings at the summer residence of Fredensborg Castle, north of Copenhagen. The six children of King Christian IX and Queen Louise were Queen Alexandra of Britain, Empress Dagmar of Russia, King Frederik VIII of Denmark, King George I of the Hellenes, the Duchess of Cumberland and Prince Valdemar of Denmark, who married Princess Marie of Orleans.2 The gigantic, high-spirited Tsar Alexander III relished the informality of these occasions as a relief from Russian court ceremony, and the children adored him. At the