There was retrospective irony here in that Franz Joseph – shown at the age of two – was to enjoy scant military success during his epic reign over the Habsburg Empire from 1848 to 1916. The portrait had remained within the Habsburg family until 1975.
The ghost of Franz Joseph’s son Rudolf, who committed suicide at Mayerling in 1887, haunted Wiener Kunst’s next-day sale on June 12.
Rudolf’s cylindrical document sheath, right, a tassled, two-foot long red velvet deed-case spangled with Rudolf’s monogram, and with an ivory and enamel top, sold here for €8500 (£5480).
War was mere childsplay for Habsburg emperor
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller’s small 1832 child portrait of the future Kaiser Franz Joseph as a Small Grenadier playing with toy soldiers, right, panel 13 x 11in (33.5 x 28cm), led the Wiener Kunst sale in Vienna on June 11 with a low-estimate €150,000 (£97,000).
