Oblong Quarto (30.5 x 23.5 cm or 12 x 9 ¼ in). Twenty-one grey cardstock leaves (one blank). 40 mounted gelatin silver photographs ca. 20.5 x 16.5 cm (8 x 6 in). All images with period printed captions on paper labels attached to mounts. Period green pebbled cloth album with blind stamped border and gilt-tooled generic title “Photographs” on front cover; photographer’s paper label on lower right corner of inner front cover and lower left corner of inner rear cover. Overall, a very good album of strong interesting photos.

A well-preserved collection of studio photographs showing an African safari trip taken by Edward, Prince of Wales (1894-1973) in 1930. Sent along with the prince was a convoy of Wolseley cars—all but one of the photographs show at least one Wolseley car. Wolseley Motors was founded in Birmingham in 1901 under the guidance of the Vickers brothers and dominated the luxury car market until shortly after the First World War. In 1927 the failing company was bought and placed under the Morris Motors umbrella. Subsequent mergers placed the Wolseley brand under the British Motor Corporation and British Leyland. The last Wolseley-branded model was released in 1975.

The album is attributed to one F.R. Logan of Birmingham. Logan appears to have been a local photographer and to have worked with Wolseley Motors; several photographs of their Birmingham factory are attributed to Logan.

The album opens with a photograph of the Prince Edward posing next to a Wolseley car in Juba, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (now South Sudan); two photographs showing the convoy outside the Government House (State House) and a building sporting a sign reading “Safariland Limited” in Nairobi; and several photographs of the convoy traversing Kenyan bush land, including someone posing with a hunted antelope before a Wolseley car, a large group of African men returning “from an elephant hunt,” and campsite preparations.

Other photographs in the album include rest houses in Kenya and Uganda, the convoy crossing the Uganda-Sudan border, a river ferry in Congo, and customs at Aba, Congo. There are also photographs of Kikuyu (Kenyan tribe) villagers, the Prince of Wales and Maasai “lion hunters,” three African women in traditional dress, a “native dance” in Congo, and the prince’s equerries at “Rhino camp.”

Overall, a lively collection of photographs showing Prince Edward’s safari trip with the Wolseley convoy.

“Wolseley Motors have received from their representative at Juba a cable which states: ‘On conclusion of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales’s hunting tour of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, Sudan, and Belgian Congo, am pleased to inform you the fleet of seven … saloons and touring cars employed have behaved splendidly.’” (Western Morning News, p. 4. April 9, 1930)

List of captions (spelling original): H.R.H. at Juba with Wolseley Car; Wolseleys at Government House, Nairobi; The Wolseley convoy starting from Nairobi; The convoy on trek; View of Kilimanjaro (19,600 ft.); Wolseley cars in the Kenya bush country [x4]; On Safari in Kenya; “Something for the pot”; The return from an elephant hunt; Rough going in Kenya; Preparing camp in the bush [x2]; Wolseley convoy on a Kenya “road”; A halt for lunch, Kenya; Box body fitted on one of the Wolseleys; A bridge in Kenya; Kikuyu villagers and the Wolseleys; H.R.H’s camp and car; H.R.H. and Masai lion hunters; Outside a house in Kenya; The Wolseley convoy crossing the Uganda-Soudan Border; The convoy at Maungu; Cars at Rhino camp on the Nile; Rest houses in Uganda [x2]; The Equerries at Rhino camp; A Wolseley crossing a bamboo bridge, Uganda; Native ladies in full dress; The camp at Serengai; Native dance in the Congo [x2]; The Prince’s car on the wash; Crossing a ferry in the Congo; A Congo ferryman; The Customs, Aba, Congo; The convoy by the Nile.