Metternich's collection of Talbot's photographs: A lost album as a virtually material being.

This article focuses on the early era of photograph collecting in Central Europe through the case of Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince von Metternich-Winneburg (1773–1859), who acquired numerous early photographic works—specifically "photogenic drawings" and calotypes—from William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1840s for his collection at Kynžvart Castle. Although the original album of Talbot's photographs is now lost, extensive archival evidence—including Talbot's correspondence, detailed catalogues by Metternich's custodian Paul Rath, and research by historians Egon Cäsar Corti and Erich Stenger—allows reconstruction of the album's contents and sheds light on Metternich's active role in early paper photography and photograph collecting in the Austrian Empire. The article also discusses the dispersal of the collection in the early 20th century and the survival of only a few original prints today, highlighting the significance of absence and material traces in understanding photographic history.