Image very kindly donated by Carole Clarke (see bibliography).

 

 

Coronation

 

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

 

 

Image of flags of the Union Jack and the Royal Standard

 

 

Image of the portrait of the King himself

 

King Edward VIII

 

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

 

May 12th
1937

 

cm long by cm wide

 

Credit woven on reverse top turn-over:
WOVEN IN ALL PURE SILK BY
BNH LTD. LEEK, ENGLAND.

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 the special bookmark above.

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 (obn36) by simply removing the image of Edward, and replacing with George and Elizabeth, and also removing Edwards name and filling in the missing part of the flags. The poor quality of the images of George and Elizabeth, compared to the realistic representation of Edward is clear testimony to the short time available.

The bookmark of Edward VIII (above) can be compared to that of George VI and Queen Elizabeth [obn36] thanks to the very kind donations of these images.