Image very kindly donated by
Mary Martin, Great Britain.

 
 
 

CORONATION

 

Ornate images of shields
representing the countries of
Canada, Australia
and India

 
 
 
 
 

Image of flags of the
Union Jack and the Royal Standard

 
 
 
 

portrait of
Queen Elizabeth
and King George VI

 
 
 
 

Ornate images of shields
representing the countries of
Great Britain,
New Zealand and South Africa

 
 
 
 
 

MAY 12TH
1937

 
 

27.0cm long by 7.3cm wide

 

Woven on reverse of top turn-over:

WOVEN IN ALL PURE SILK BY
B·N·H· LTD. LEEK, ENGLAND

Brough, Nicholson & Hall logo on the reverse top foldover of this bookmark

Following the death of his father, King George V, Edward was proclaimed King, and his coronation was set for May 12 1937. All the plans were made and Brough, Nicholson & Hall designed a special bookmark ([obn40]).

However, on 11 December 1936, Edward abdicated the throne, and his younger brother, George became King.

As all the preparations were so far advanced, it was not possible to reorganise the coronation, and by default, May 12 1937 became the coronation date of George instead.

Brough, Nicholson & Hall had to make a hurried job of creating the souvenir bookmark for George VI and his Queen, Elizabeth. This they achieved, above, by simply removing the image of Edward, and replacing with George and Elizabeth, and also removing Edwards name and filling in the missing parts of the flags. The poor quality of the portraits of George and Elizabeth, compared to the realistic representation of Edward is clear testimony to the short time available.

The bookmarks of Edward VIII [obn40] can be compared to that of George VI and Queen Elizabeth (above) thanks to the very kind donations of these images.