Daisy, Princess of Pless (1873-1943)

This 1901 series of poses where Daisy affects a pose and an attitude influenced, perhaps, by the great French actress Sarah Bernhardt’s impersonation of Melissinde in Edmond Rostand’s 1895 play La Princess Lointaine. Daisy appeared to some extent to have played along with this role.

In a piece she wrote for the Book of Beauty Daisy described the view of Fürstenstein with its lights twinkling in the winter darkness from the vantage point of the Riesengrab: “it really looks like fairyland, and I, so they tell me sometimes, am the Fairy Princess.” This view of Daisy as was reiterated by Major Chapman-Huston in his introduction to Daisy: Princess of Pless by Herself:

“To the world the Princess became known as the typical English beauty with golden hair, perfect complexion, graceful stature, and ineffaceable charm. She could walk, ride, hunt, shoot, sail, sing, play and dance to perfection. She looked the fairy Princess…”