The Art of Play: Princess Margaret with a Doll, 1935

Princess Margaret
Marcus Adams, 1935
The Royal Collection

In December of 1935, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) took their daughters Princesses Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) and Margaret to the Children’s Studio to be photographed by Marcus Adams. The Princesses wore matching silk dresses trimmed with small flowers and delicate frills.


The two princesses sat for portraits together, and individually. Each was photographed with a favorite toy. Elizabeth chose to be photographed with her cherished plush cat while Margaret chose to have her picture taken with this large doll.

Antique Image of the Day: Princess Elizabeth and her Toy Cat, 1935

Princess Elizabeth
With Her Toy Cat
Marcus Adams, 1935
The Royal Collection

Even little princesses like to play with their toys. This 1935 photograph of a nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth is evidence of that. Taken to “The Children’s Studio” by Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and King George VI, Princess Elizabeth gladly posed for Royal photographer Marcus Adams. Her only demand—that she be photographed with her favorite toy, a small, stuffed cat.


What’s most amazing about this photo, however, is the fact the she looks exactly the same then as she does now that she’s Queen Elizabeth II. I wonder if she’s still got that cat. Maybe it’s what she keeps in her ever-present handbag.

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

History’s Runway: The Flowers of the Fields of France Gown, 1957

The Flowers of the Fields of France Gown
Norman Hartnell, 1957
This and all related images:
The Victoria and Albert Museum

Queen Elizabeth II is not the first name that comes to mind when you think of a fashion style-setter. But, iyou go back and look at Her Majesty’s collection of gorgeous gowns, you will notice that they are quite extraordinary, and some of them, rather cutting-edge. For many years, Norman Hartnell was the Queen’s personal designer. Here, we see a creation by Hartnell which is anything but dull.


This full-skirted, full length evening gown in ivory silk satin with a princess-seamed bodice and draped fold at hips, extends into a large self-fabric bow positioned at 7/8ths length down the skirt. It is carefully embroidered with miniature bees, grasses, wheat and wild flowers worked in relief in faceted glass stones, gold beads, “brilliants” and variously shaped pearls, with flowers of mother-of-pearl and gold petals. The gown was designed for the Queen's state visit to Paris, April 8-11th, 1957 and, fittingly, refers to French motifs, including the "Flowers of the Fields of France" (traditionally, poppies, daisies and crossed wheat sheaves) and Napoleonic bees. These diplomatic motifs are worked in relief. And, here’s where the Queen is clever. The dress was intended to both compliment the French nation and draw attention to the Queen. Knowing that she was going to one of the fashion centers of the world, she knew she had to dazzle them. And, she certainly did.

“The Flowers of the Fields of France Gown” was worn to the state dinner on the first night pf the visit. The dinner hosted by President René Coty at the Elysée Palace, and was followed by a visit to the Opéra to see a ballet by Lifar from The Diaries of Cynthia Jebb.

When the dress was displayed at Kensington Palace in 2006-7. Maureen Markham, one of the embroiderers who worked on the dress, recalled that she and her team worked with blacked-out windows to avoid the peering-eyes of the press and that she hoped that the Queen would have “nice plush cushions to sit on so as not to crush the embroidery.”

This is just one bit of Norman Hartnell’s brilliance. He had been court dressmaker since 1938, working the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and continued to work with the Royal Family until his death in 1979. 

Painting of the Day: King George V with his Granddaughters, 1934-1935

King George V with His Granddaughters
Thomas Percy Earl, 1934-1935
The Royal Collection

King George V and Queen Mary loved, loved, loved their granddaughter Princess Elizabeth. Queen Mary often noted in her diary that she spent many happy hours with Princess Elizabeth. She never mentioned Margaret Rose. The king, too, adored his eldest granddaughter. And, he didn’t really like children too much. She called him, “Grandpa England,” and he often said that he hoped that nothing would come between “Bertie” (his son, the Duke of York) and “Lilibet” (his nickname for Bertie’s eldest daughter) and the throne. Not only was this a show of support for his second son and his granddaughter, but it was a clear statement that he didn’t think that his eldest boy, “David” would be a good king. “David” wasn’t a good king, and he wasn’t king long—thankfully. We all know about David’s abdication kerfuffle when, as King Edward VIII, he preferred Wallis Simpson over England.


After the abdication, Queen Mary was all the more involved with Elizabeth and often took comfort in the fact that her late husband adored the girl as well.

Before the King’s death in 193g, he sat for a portrait with the two young princesses. This painting by Thomas Percy Earl shows the King with his favorite horse and the two young girls on their ponies. They are guarded by a sturdy Scottie dog. This painting was created as a gift for Queen Mary. It was presented to Queen Mary by the wives and widows of members of the Jockey Club for the Silver Jubilee celebration on May 6, 1935.

History's Runway with Miss Oscar: Her Majesty's Hardy Amies Poppy Gown, 1983

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Not wanting to be left out, Oscar thought she'd offer the first of her fashion posts a bit early.

We begin with an attractive evening gown from The Royal Collection.

Hardy Amies designed this stunning gown for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  Featuring a cream chiffon skirt with an intricately embroidered bodice, the Queen wore the gown for  a reception in California during an Official Visit to Mexico and the United States of America, from February to March 1983. 

The bodice of the gown is embroidered with Californian poppies in shades of crimson, salmon and purple with stems of black and white.

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Antique Image of the Day: Princess Elizabeth and her Toy Cat, 1935

Princess Elizabeth
With Her Toy Cat
Marcus Adams, 1935
The Royal Collection

Even little princesses like to play with their toys. This 1935 photograph of a nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth is evidence of that. Taken to “The Children’s Studio” by Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and King George VI, Princess Elizabeth gladly posed for Royal photographer Marcus Adams. Her only demand—that she be photographed with her favorite toy, a small, stuffed cat.


What’s most amazing about this photo, however, is the fact the she looks exactly the same then as she does now that she’s Queen Elizabeth II. I wonder if she’s still got that cat. Maybe it’s what she keeps in her ever-present handbag.

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Gifts of Grandeur: The ‘Queen Anne’ and ‘Queen Caroline’ Pearl Necklaces

Pair of Pearl Necklaces
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II

These two necklaces are part of the private collection of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. The first, a string of forty-six pearls once belonged to Queen Anne and, the next, a necklace of fifty pearls was owned by Queen Caroline.

They are always worn together and were given by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) to Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present in 1947. Prior to the wedding, they were cleaned and serviced by Garrards who has looked after the pearls since 1896.

Antique Image of the Day: Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose on a Rocking Horse, 1932

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Photographer Frederick Thurston took this unguarded photo of Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) and her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, astride their favorite rocking horse in 1932.

This portrait was taken long before the death of King George V and, certainly, long before the Duke of York imagined that he’d one day be King instead of his elder brother. The photo of the two Princesses was taken in the nursery at St Paul’s Walden Bury, the country home of the Bowes-Lyon family (the family of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) in Hertfordshire. The rocking horse had once been a play-thing of the Queen Mother when she was a girl. 

Drawing of the Day: Homage to the Queen, 1953

Homage to the Queen
Design for the Coronation Ballet
Oliver Messel, 1953
The Victoria & Albert Museum

“Homage to the Queen” was choreographed by Frederick Ashton as the Sadler's Wells Ballet tribute for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June, 1953. The production was performed at the Royal Opera House. We can tell from production notes which were made at the time that it appears that the production designer, Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel, (1904 - 1978 ) conceived the ballet opening with an extravagant procession, incorporating both English folk and mythological figures which would close with an Apotheosis showing Elizabeth I as Queen of the Past, handing the Imperial orb to Elizabeth II as Queen of the Present. At the end of the opening, the image of the Queen would be left, as Messel put it, “surrounded with all the virtues and gifts.”

Messel, one of Britain’s leading theatrical designers of the 1930s through 1950s, envisioned this spectacle to be something like a 17th century Jacobean court masque in the manner of Inigo Jones and produced “lavish, fantastical designs” which managers of the ballet noted, “would have cost more than his sets and costumes for the main ballet.” Because of the potential expense, the stage procession of the homage was reduced to a simple entry for the queens of the four elements - Earth, Water, Fire and Air - and their attendant. Messel still got his way—partially. After the ballet, an apotheosis is performed wherein the spirit of the first Elizabeth passes the orb to the second. Here we see one of the storyboard images which Messel produced for his original concept of the homage ballet. This image shows the lion and the unicorn of the Royal arms. The sketch shows the two figures, dancing, facing each other, and carrying flowers which were to be presented to the Queen.

Lord Snowdon, onetime husband of Princess Margaret, and Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatrical designs and other artifacts. According to the V&A, “The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan. The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005.”

Mastery of Design: Delhi Durbar Tiara, 1911

The Delhi Durbar Tiara
Made for H.M. Queen Mary
Garrard & Co., 1911
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection 
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Mary had decided that she and King George V needed different crowns when named Emperor and Empress of India than those they’d worn for their 1911 coronation.  She was told that the expense seemed unnecessary.  Her Majesty, then, went to her friends and asked them nicely to donate the diamonds and gemstones which were needed for these crowns.  She went back to the advisors and told them that the only cost would be the manufacture of the crowns, and, she got her way.

She also got a nice tiara out of the deal.  This tiara was made by Garrard & Co. in 1911 for the December 12 Delhi Durbar.  The tiara was constructed so that it could be hung with the Cambridge Emeralds or with pearls should the Queen desire.  Therefore, the piece is considered part of  the Queen’s parure of emeralds and diamonds which also included a necklace, stomacher, brooch and earrings.

The tiara a designed as a tall circlet of lyres and S-scrolls which are linked by festoons of rose-cut and brilliant-cut diamonds.  In 1912, the tiara was altered so that it could accommodate both of the two Lesser Stars of Africa – Cullinan III and IV.

Queen Mary lent the tiara to Queen Elizabeth in 1946 so that the Queen Mother could wear it during the 1947 South African Tour.  Following Queen Mary’s 1953 death, the Queen Mother kept the Durbar tiara in her own collection until her death in 2002. In 2005, it was lent by Queen Elizabeth II to The Duchess of Cornwall, wife of Prince Charles.

Painting of the Day: Queen Elizabeth II in Coronation Robes, 1953

Design for the Coronation Gown
Norman Hartnell, 1953
Crown Copyright
Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The Royal Collection

Norman Hartnell, a favorite designer of Queen Elizabeth II, was the first couturier to be knighted when he received the honor during the Silver Jubilee of 1977. For decades, Hartnell served as couturier to senior members of the royal family and made both the wedding dress and Coronation Dress of Queen Elizabeth II. 
The design of the coronation dress was well-guarded, allowing considerable excitement to build in anticipation of the ceremony. This painting shows Hartnell’s final design which relied on his trademarks of extensive embroidery, pearls and other glittering adornment. 

The finished gown, 1953
The Royal Collection

Her Majesty in Her Coronation Robes
Oil Painting by 

Sir Herbert James Gunn (1893-1964) (artist)
Creation Date:
1953 - 1954

Crown Copyright

The Royal Collection

Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Unusual Artifacts: A Horsehair Hat by Simone Mirman, 1953

Hat
Simone Mirman, 1953
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Paris-born milliner Simone Mirman began her career working with fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli in Paris before coming to London in 1947. Mirman took an unusual approach to her millinery practice, preferring to think of her hats as ‘objects d’art’ as opposed to utilitarian objects. Her business began slowly, but from her attic workshop she soon gained momentum and was able to open a couture millinery salon in London. Of her many famous clients, she was most popular with the Royal family—making unusual hats for Princess Margaret Rose from 1953 and, later, for the Queen and the Queen Mother from the 1960s onward.

This hat made for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 shows Simone Mirman’s sense of play and artistry. Here, we see that she’s adorned this horsehair creation with diminutive rosebuds . Made in the “coolie-style,” this hat was meant to transition from summer to chillier seasons. Creations such as this brought a great deal of attention to Mirman, and her popularity soared during the 1953 coronation year when her work was considered the utmost of chic. 

Obscure Book of the Day: The Official Program from the 1953 Coronation

This is just so neat. Here we see an actual official program from the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. We found this in an antique store in Texas of all places!


Entitled, “The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Approved Souvenir Programme,” it is “Published by Gracious Permission of Her Majesty the Queen” by “King George’s Jubilee Trust.”

A verse by John Masefield, the Poet Laureate at the time begins the program alongside a beautiful portrait of the Queen. This is followed by a foreword by the Queen’s uncle, The Duke of Gloucester, photos of the Royal Family and a history of the Queen’s life.

The rest of the program includes maps, exact times and locations of events, the order of the ceremony, the participants, the celebrations to follow, and just about every other bit of information about the coronation that anyone could possibly want to know.

Let’s take a look inside…

Vintage Image of the Day: An Invitation to the Savoy Coronation Ball, 1953

Savoy Hotel Invitation to 1953 Coronation Ball
The Victoria & Albert Museum

In June of 1953, all of Britain was awash in celebrations in honor of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. From modest gatherings to lavish balls, nowhere was more bustling with merriment than London.


The swankiest hotels hosted opulent affairs. Here’s an invitation to one of them. Here, we see an invitation to The Savoy Coronation Ball, of June, 1953, to be held on the night of The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

This handsome card was designed by A. Games, and printed by Lund Humphries.

Fashion Sense: The Lady Alexandra Gown, 1948

The Victoria & Albert Museum

As you decide what to wear on Thursday for Thanksgiving with friends and family, well, this won’t be among your choices. But, ladies, don’t you wish it could be? Here, we see an evening dress in cream slipper satin with a close fitting bodice, and a high round neck adorned with amber and silver sequins and glass bead embroidery around the neck and down the center of the bodice. Smaller matching designs flank the center panel. A train at the rear is looped up to form a triple fan-shaped bustle at the back waistline. The long, tight-fitting sleeves are held close to the arm with three darts at the elbow and close with a zipper at the wrist.


This gown was made in 1948 for Lady Alexandra Howard-Johnston (1907-97) who was the wife of the Naval Attaché to Paris at the end of the 1940s. Due to her husband’s position, Lady Alexandra was required to attend a vast number of formal events and, therefore, needed an extensive wardrobe. Lady Alexandra dressed exclusively at the house of Jacques Fath (1912-54).

Fath was known to lend evening and day dresses each season to Lady Alexandra, knowing that he would receive a lot of publicity from Alexandra’s appearances. Lady Alexandra recalled “If there was a dress I wanted to keep, I could pay sale price at the end of the season. I was not allowed to go to any other couturier, but I did not want to – Fath was perfection.”

This particular gown was designed by Fath for Lady Alexandra to wear for the official visit of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip to Paris in May 1948. Lady Alexandra later recalled that when she and her husband made their enterance at the Théâtre de l’Opéra, the Garde Nationale suddenly sprang to attention. She said, “I realised they had mistaken us for the Princess and Duke. That was the effect made by my splendid Fath.”

Not bad.

Gifts of Grandeur: Queen Mary’s Diamond Bangles, 1893

Pair of Gold and Diamond Bangles
Presented to Mary of Teck in 1893
The Royal Collection

In 1893, as a wedding gift, Mary of Teck (after 1911, known as Queen Mary), was presented with a gorgeous pair of gold and diamond bangles by the Bombay Presidency. Knowing how much Mary loved sparkly things, I’m pretty sure she liked them.


There were two things that Queen Mary cared for more than art and jewels—her family and her country. In 1947, she presented these bangles to her granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh.