An Unknown Lady from Beneath the Floorboards – A Mysterious Find
- tomaszk
- Dec 7
- 4 min read
During the restoration works at Gruszów Castle – formerly Birkholz Castle – a discovery was made of the kind normally encountered only in archives or novels. While dismantling the old wooden floor, hidden between the floorboards and the dust of bygone decades, a historical photograph emerged: the portrait of an elegantly dressed woman from the late 19th century. Who this lady is remains – despite intensive research – a fascinating mystery.
The Search for Clues Begins
Following the discovery, we first contacted the descendants of the last pre-war owners, the von Dresky family, in the hope of uncovering familial leads. The responses, however, were unequivocal: no one could identify the woman depicted, neither as a resident of the castle nor as a known visitor.
Thus, only the path of historical and technical analysis remained – and it led remarkably far.
The Motif – A Woman of Rank and Style
With the support of modern AI-assisted image reconstruction, we were able to restore the damaged photograph and even make faded inscriptions on the reverse visible.
The woman appears to be around 35 to 40 years old. She wears a high-necked dress with floral embroidery and possesses a dignified posture typical of representative portraits from the late Imperial period. Everything – clothing, pose, photographic technique – points to an educated woman from the upper bourgeoisie or the lower nobility.
On both the front and the reverse of the photograph, we find the name of the studio of the court photographer Eugen Kegel of Kassel. Our first focus therefore turned to the photographer and his technique.
Cabinet Photography – A Medium of Bourgeois Self-Confidence
The photograph is a classic cabinet photograph (carte de cabinet), a larger portrait format that became especially popular from the 1870s onwards. The sturdy cardboard mount – in the case of our find measuring 10.8 × 16.5 cm – corresponds exactly to the standard of the period. The elaborately designed backs, which invariably served as advertising space for photographers, are also striking.
Such cards were usually produced deliberately in renowned studios – another indication of the unknown lady’s social standing.
Eugen Kegel - Court Photographer of Kassel
Eugen Kegel – Court Photographer of Kassel
The photographer of the image, Eugen Kegel, was one of the respected portrait photographers in Kassel in the late 19th century. In 1873, he took over his father’s photographic studio at Große Rosenstraße 5 and was presumably active there until his death in 1901.¹
His work displays the typical aesthetics of the period: fine lighting, clear composition and a representative style as demanded by court and bourgeois portraiture.
“Awarded First Prize, Frankfurt am Main 1883” – A Seal of Prestige?
On the reverse of the card appears the printed text:“Awarded first prize, Frankfurt a.M. 1883”.
Research in contemporary sources – Photographische Mitteilungen, Photographische Correspondenz, and the Frankfurt daily press – suggests that this distinction refers to a trade or art exhibition in Frankfurt in 1883.² Between 1880 and 1885, such exhibitions were held regularly, and photographers competed there for prizes.³
Although we were unable to locate Kegel’s name conclusively in the published lists of prize winners, the wording corresponds to the typical advertising strategies of many studios of the time.⁴ It served reputation – and undoubtedly customer acquisition.
The Enigmatic Studio Coat of Arms
The cardboard mount also bears a striking, richly ornamented studio emblem: two lions, a decorative shield form, and the motto “Fideliter et constanter” (“faithfully and steadfastly”).
A comparison with the official historical coats of arms of the region – such as those of
the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel,
the House of Hesse,
and the Province of Hesse-Nassau –
reveals that Kegel’s emblem is not a state or dynastically attested coat of arms.⁵ Rather, it is an aesthetically designed self-creation, as was common in many photographic studios of the period. These were intended to convey seriousness, artistic skill, and proximity to courtly culture.⁶
A court photographer such as Kegel would have used such emblems deliberately as a visual promise of quality.
The Great Mystery: Who Is the Woman?
Thus, we were able to uncover much – about the technique, the photographer, the format, the emblem used, and even the studio’s advertising formulas.
Yet the most important question remains unanswered:
Who is the lady whose image lay hidden beneath the castle floor for more than 120 years?
Was she:
a resident of Birkholz Castle?
a member of the von Dresky family?
a visitor who had herself portrayed during a journey to Kassel?
or does the photograph bear no direct relation to the castle at all – perhaps brought there much later?
None of the sources examined, no archives, and no replies from descendants provide any clue. The image remains a silent yet powerful testimony to an unknown woman, whose story has been lost to us – yet whose face unexpectedly found its way back into the light.
Conclusion: The Portrait of an Unknown Woman as a Window into the Past
The discovery offers a rare insight into the world of the late 19th century: into the aesthetics of cabinet photography, the workshop of a renowned court photographer, and the self-staging of a society that placed great value on representation.
Yet despite all technical analysis, historical research and detective work, the central figure of this discovery remains anonymous. What remains is a story full of suggestion, a fragment of a biography, and an aesthetically impressive portrait of a woman whose identity we will probably never be able to establish.
What impressed us – and what remains – is the wonderful result of the AI-assisted reconstruction.
A mystery – but a beautiful one.
Footnotes
Address references, inter alia, in various editions of the Address Book of the City of Cassel (digitised by the Kassel University Library).
Photographische Mitteilungen, volumes 1882–1884, digitised via the SLUB Dresden Digital Library and Heidelberg University.
References to Frankfurt trade exhibitions can be found, inter alia, in the Frankfurter Zeitung (1883) and in the annual reports of the “Gewerbeverein Frankfurt”.
On the advertising practices of photographic studios, see: Julius Schnauss, Lehrbuch der Photographie, 5th ed., 1885; and various advertisements in the Illustrirtes photographisches Wochenblatt of the 1880s.
Comparison based on standard heraldic works, including Ströhl: Deutsche Wappenrolle (1897) and Siebmacher, Wappenbuch, as well as digital holdings of the Kassel State Library.
On the use of pseudo-heraldic studio emblems, see: Monika Faber, The Backs of Photographs: Studio Culture 1860–1900 (Vienna, 2009).
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