Leo XIII was pope from 1878 to 1903, the oldest reigning Pope in history, so he has a ton of CDV's and Cabinets that far outstrip demand today, making him a great bargain for history collecting. Perhaps most importantly to history nerds, Leo XIII was the one who opened the Papal Archives to outsiders and enabled an immense amount of historical research and knowledge to enter the public sphere.
This is a black and white photo like most cabinet cards, the coloring is all uniquely hand done on the photo itself. Sometimes this was done by the photographers shop and sometimes by an artistic buyer (I assume). I was happy to get this one because of the great detail in the art - most of the time the artist did things like add red to the face, color a garment. None of the original photo is visible anymore besides the background, and in hand the detail they went to with he shading and coloring is impressive.
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