Queen Victoria.

HOLMES, Richard R. [Queen Victoria].

$750.00

Item Number: 137819

London: Boussod, Valadon & Co, 1897.

First edition of this finely illustrated account of the life and reign of Queen Victoria compiled and edited by the librarian to the Queen, Richard Holmes. Quarto, bound in three quarter vellum over cloth-covered boards with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, gilt tooling to the spine and panels, top edge gilt with others untrimmed, marbled endpapers, tissue-guarded frontispiece of the Queen and Prince of Wales, profusely illustrated with tissue guarded engravings, several after portraits from the Royal Collections, original wrappers bound in. In near fine condition.

Queen Victoria's reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.