ARCHIVE OF THE KELLER FAMILY, PRUSSIAN AND RUSSIAN COUNTS 5 photographs, albumin prints. Russia, 1880-90s.

Owner's inscriptions in French in upper or lower margin. Various sizes: 5.3 x 8 cm, 13.5 x 10 cm, 16 x 11 cm, 19.5 x 11.5 cm, 19.5 x 13 cm. Provenance: archive of the chamberlain Count Alexander Eduardovich Keller (1859-1938). 1) Countess Maria Ivanovna Keller, née Riznich (1827-1895/1914/1924), daughter of Ivan Stepanovich (Jovan Stefanovich) Riznich (1792-1852), Odessa negociant, and Pauline Adamovna, née Countess Rzhevusskaya. She was married to Earl Edward Fyodorovich Keller (1819-1903), who belonged to the Russian branch of the Prussian Keller family, an official of the Chancellery of the Kyiv governor, and a senator. In 1878 she divorced, left her husband and children and married Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves (1842 - 1909), a French occultist who was 15 years younger than she. She bought the French estate of Alveydre to live on, and from 1880 he began to call himself the Marquis d'Alveydre (a title granted by the authorities of the Republic of San Marino). In her first marriage, she had five children. 2) Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel (née Countess Keller; 1846-1931, Paris), the eldest daughter of Count Eduard Feodorovich Keller (1819-1903), a Russian statesman who belonged to the Russian branch of the Prussian Keller family, and Maria Ivanovna Riznich (1827-1895/1914/1924), maid of honour to Empress Maria Alexandrovna, mistress of a high society salon in St Petersburg attended by politicians and leading officials of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. After the revolution, she published her memoirs From the Sinking World (Berlin: Glagol, [1922 or 1923]). Daughters of Countess M.E. Kleinmichel: 3) Olga (1874-1946), from 1894 wife of Baron Modest von Korff (1862-1912), chamberlain. Handwritten autograph on the front of the photo in the lower right: "Olga 1899". 4) Maria (1879-1916), maid of honour, wife of the chief of ceremonies, Nikolai Nikolaevich Lopukhin (1857-1947), Russian attache in Darmstadt and Munich; grandson of P. F. Lopukhin.) Handwritten autograph on front of photograph: "To dear uncle Shur[nrzb]". Part of the inscription is faded. The addressee of the autograph is Alexander Edwardovich Keller (1859-1938, Paris), count, chamberlain, collegiate councilor. From 1919 he lived in France. 5) Count Fyodor Eduardovich Keller (1850-1904, Gaipin), the eldest son of Count Eduard Fyodorovich Keller (1819-1903), Russian statesman, who belonged to the Russian branch of the Prussian Keller family and Maria Ivanovna Riznich (1827-1895/1914/1924), Russian military commander, Lieutenant-General, commander of the Imperial Family Lifeguard 4th Rifle Battalion, hero of the Russo-Japanese War, owner of the estate Sennitsy.