The Royal Baby Book: A Souvenir Album

Forgive a long, lovingly detailed review...I just can't help myself. First, you'll notice on the cover it's always the mama holding the baby...not William, Charles, Philip or any of the kings.Just to keep track: the chapters of monarchs are:Queen Victoria, born Alexandrina Victoria on 24 May 1819King Edward VII, born Albert Edward on 9 November 1841King George V, born George Frederick Ernest Albert on 3 June 1865King George VI, born Albert Frederick Arthur George on 14 December 1895Queen Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on 21 April 1926Prince Charles, born Charles Philip Arthur George on 14 November 1948Prince William, born William Arthur Philip Louis on 21 June 1982Prince George, born George Alexander Louis on 22 July 2013For centuries, royal babies have been born with silver spoons in their mouths, almost literally. It's charming to see silver baby rattles with bells swinging in the middle, with a whistle at one end and a pacifier at the other with a tip of coral for teething. Coral was thought to have healing powers but, after centuries, was finally replaced with a mother-of-pearl teething ring for George VI.I was happy to discover this is genuinely a picture album with a lot of history thrown in in the captions. I love the fabulous royal jewels and crazy-expensive items--see  The Crown Jewels  and love learning the progeny of the millennial British Crown items. For example, there is a painting within a painting, both of which are on display: William Beechey painted a portrait of Victoria's father, Prince Edward, the 4th son of George III in 1814. Beechey then painted a portrait in 1821 of the 9mo baby clutching a miniature of her recently deceased father, standing by her seated mother in widow's weeds (black). In 1828, her mother presented her with a very elaborate gold locket, the miniature inside of her father based on the 1814 portrait. I'm reminded of the reasons for the unusual coronation of a young woman: the later Queen Victoria's father and grandfather, George III, died within a week's time, leaving her 3rd in line to the throne after her 2 paternal uncles, Kings George IV and William IV who died childless. See the elaborate gilt cradle rocker with the red velvet lining alongside Queen Victoria's birthday gift of 1843: a portrait of Princess Alice, her 2nd daughter, asleep in the cradle.Royal mothers are no different than us peons: there is a charming painting of King George III's wife, Queen Charlotte, holding her sleeping baby with a classic parent's finger raised expressing: shhhh--don't wake the baby. Victoria drew charming sketches of her children and, like millions of moms, kept their first locket of hair and made baby albums.On a personal note, I was amazed to see a portrait of Edward VII at age 5 wearing a sailor suit with a modern photo of the costume: one of my favorite photos of my 3yo son is in a sailor suit and I kept it too. Edward's is blue-on-white, the standard King's navy issue in 1846; my son's from exactly 150 years later is white on dark blue, our standard uniform. There is an enormous painting of Edward VII's christening. Victoria had a 4-foot-high cake made and each guest received a commemorative piece of cake in an exquisite box: this custom is still in effect: we've received small boxes of cakes from my husband's family weddings.Both genders wore the same clothing, elaborate long dresses, as babies and exquisite short dresses until age 3 when boys would be "breeched" and start to wear trousers. So you must never assume the adorable curly-locked imp in the satin-and-lace dress is a princess--it could just as easily be a prince!There is the 4-generation photograph of the seated Victoria holding Elizabeth II's uncle, Edward VIII in his christening gown, with his grandfather, Edward VII, and father, George V, standing alongside. It is first with Elizabeth II that we see many public photographs of her has a baby and child. But portraits are still important for royals so there is a lovely painting of a 7 yo Elizabeth commissioned by her father as a gift to her mother.Prince Charles: unusually for a formal christening picture of a future monarch, the eyes of his grandparents, George VI and Queen Mary as well as his parents, Phillip and Elizabeth who is seated and holding him, are squarely on the sleeping baby. (Despite what anyone thinks of his looks now, Charles was a photogenic cherub when tiny.)It's striking how much the picture of Di and Charles leaving St. Mary's Hospital with William in Di's arms looks like that of Kate and William leaving the same place with baby George.As you can tell, I love this book. It amazes me that 3 of the most lengthy and influential reigns were of queens: Elizabeth I, Victoria and Elizabeth II. (Hang in, Liz--you have less than 2 years to go to beat Vicky's record of an astounding 63 years!) My main interest is usually Tudor England but...who among you didn't get up early in the morning of July 29, 1981 to see the wedding of Charles and Di? Her death was tragic. But now her legacy of William and little George softens the history and make the future hopeful. And the royal line lucked out in the looks department with Di and Kate.

An extraordinary book about the human side of royalty. Treasures, artworks and trinkets show how five sovereigns and three candidates were pampered as babies. Amazing how many of the objects are actually very "common", only being special by the provenance. At the same time, how protocol takes out spontaneity and happiness of childhood (not positively impress when toys were labeled with titles instead of child name or nickname!). The book is perfect for history buffs, do not buy if looking for inspiration for your baby room!!

I purchased this book for my wife for Christmas and it was a hit. If you follow the history of the British Monarchy, this is a must have book as it has some very interesting facts, photos and art illustrations of the children of the Royal Family during the era that they lived in and some of the items that they had from infant to toddlers. It is a very interesting book!

I love this book, it has so many great pictures and the history of all the families is great. It was nicer than I expected and it was available at Amazon instead of me having to order it from an English web dealer paying costly postage prices. Anyone who is a collector or fan of the British Royal family will truly love this book.

What a cute book! Baby royals from all eras. How fun to see the different clothes, mothers, & history unfold. Ordered as "used" & was in near perfect condition. Very happy.

How things have changed since Diana, Princess of Wales became a Mother for the first time and how she changed the ways of Royal life and how much she loved her boys. It's so nice to see that her eldest married for LOVE and I'm sure Harry will do the same.

Beautiful souvenir album for fans! Love the paper quality, pictures, text, and the fact that was published in Great Britain. I was expecting more pages dedicated to Prince George. Love it!

Perfect.

I was surprised how good this book is,I bought this for an aunt who adores the royal family. Lovely pictures of past and present royal babies,with lots of pictures of their clothing and prams,with just enough info for you to digest on how they lived, mostly colour pictures with some paintings, and black and white pictures .its feels quite personal and gives you a great insight of history in the royal household,with what toys they played with as well. I'm not really into the royal family,but how the book is laid out was a very good read,an absolute gem for any royal family fan. A perfect for a coffee table. Its so nice I am buying my mother one as well. As when she looked at it she was in awe of the royal babies. The ones of princess diana brought a tear to my eye. And of course pictures of kate and wills with beautiful prince george, with a very cute close up of a newborn george.but not our new princess as the book is a few years out,I will look out for a newer version to add to my aunts collection.

Loved the pictures,good quality,and a nice size. However was very disappointed with pics of Prince George! Don't know when it was published,but they should have waited so a few more pictures could have been used! That said its very good quality and makes a lovely addition to my growing royal book collection.

I probably would not have chosen this book, if I had known that there were not any original photos of Prince George. I do like the book, it arrived on time after a delay because it was out of stock. No damage to package or book.

Wanted to keep something on the occasion of Prince George's birth. Lovely book and well presented. Nice to just look at from time to time.

a good selection of photos showing contrasting generations of the royal family and their presenting of their new born children