3-053-649 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Shah at the Crystal Palace, 1873. The Shah of Persia in London. '...entertainment provided by the Crystal Palace Company for the state visit of the Shah...Mr. T. Hughes, M.P., chairman of the directors...led them along a path, carpeted with scarlet, down the nave, to the gorgeous pavilion erected on the stage of the theatre in the central transept opposite the great organ. This pavilion was formed of golden arches in the Alhambra style, with a canopy of glittering Persian lions and suns in gold; the pillars and galleries were adorned with flags and floral wreaths...The palace was crowded with gaily-dressed spectators. The Shah took his seat in a chair of honour upon the dais, with the Princess of Wales at his left hand, and her sister, the Cesarevna, on his right; the Prince of Wales, in plain dress, sat next her Imperial Highness, while the Russian Crown Prince sat on the other side of the Princess of Wales. The Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Louise, the Duke of Teck, Prince Christian, and Prince Waldemar of Denmark, Princess Mary of Cambridge, the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, with the Shah's half-brother and one or two other Persian Princes, sat in the lower seats of the front semicircle'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.