Object of the Day: A Souvenir Cup from the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary, 1911

Last week, on June 22, we celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the Coronation of King George V and his consort, Mary of Teck. Regular readers of Stalking the Belle Époque know by now that I have a particular affinity for Queen Mary, and, the more I read about her life, the more I feel that we were of similar dispositions on a variety of subjects.


This past weekend, I was given the chance to add to my ever-expanding collection of Royal souvenirs. Among the new (old) items is this very smart china cup produced for the 1911 Coronation. This is a particularly nifty cup. Not only does it have handsome portraits of the King and Queen (in frames designed to look as if they’re pearl-studded), but it features their birthdates, their marriage date and many brilliantly-colored symbols of the empire from roses and thistles to maple and oak leaves. It’s quite lovely. Obviously, it has been broken and glued back together, but those joins appear to be decades old, and frankly, after one hundred years, an object has earned the right to be a little cracked.

The reverse of the cup bears the message, “May their reign be glorious.” And, truly, it was.