Royal Portraits

Cecil Beaton. Introduction by Peter Quennell.

Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. 1963. First edition. Hardback, small folio; red cloth-bound boards, gilt crown motif debossed to front board, dust jacket. [104 pages.] 94 photographs, including 8 in colour. English. 355 x 265mm. 1.4kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; a couple of short tear to rear top edge, 1 cm area of loss to front top edge towards head of spine, slight wear at base of spine, creasing to front flap, not price-clipped; slight wear to cloth at head of spine, lengthy previous owner's inscription.

A generous survey of Cecil Beaton’s portraits of the Royal Family, beginning with the romantic photographs taken of Queen Elizabeth in the grounds of Buckingham Palace just before the outbreak of the Second World War. The book contains a selection of 94 photographs taken from different royal sittings between 1935 and 1963. The Royal Family trusted Beaton to produce photographs that presented them in the image that they desired, emphasising their humanity and warmth. We see the transformation of Queen Elizabeth to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the glamour of the young Duke and Duchess of Kent, King George VI in uniform, the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II on her Coronation day, the first baby photos of Prince Charles, Princess Anne, and Prince Andrew, and the new generation’s weddings – Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong Jones, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Katharine Worsley, and Princess Alexandra and her fiancé Angus Ogilvy.