Product Description

All the pomp and circumstance of over 100 years of royal events come together in this colourful and evocative Royal Scrapbook, which celebrates the coronations, weddings and jubilees over 5 reigns, beginning with Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and ending witht the celebration of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. Here are all the souvenirs, from badges and bunting to pencils and money boxes, which have captured the flavour of each memorable moment: souvenirs that have been treasured and handed down from one generation to the next. Included are not only the more enduring items: the commemmorative flags, mugs, jigsaws and chocolate tins but also the ephemera, whether milk bottle tops, sweet wrappers or paper hats. Now for the first time, this Royal Scrapbook brongs together over 1,000 images magnificently illustrating royal festive occasions, for us to relive either with wonder or nostalgia. Once again material from the Robert Opie collection illuminates the past in a remarkable way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #277751 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 62 pages

About the Author
Since the 1970s, Robert Opie has amassed an unrivalled collection of packaging. He is the author of numerous publications and has given many talks to schools, as well as on radio and television.

Customer Reviews

An everday story of Royal folk
We all seem to have an ongoing fascination with the British monarchy, a small elite of non-elected leaders who indulge a life of privilege and affluence and in Robert Opie's super book you can follow the history of the Royals from Victorian times to the recent Queen's Golden Jubilee. Although the book only has sixty-two pages it opens up to spreads twenty-one by fifteen inches and there are over 1,500 items to look at.

Opie's Scrapbooks (there are eight others) all follow the same style, each themed spread is a collection of printed ephemera and related material, usually presented as one carefully arranged still-life photo with some text explaing the background to the items shown. For instance, the spread on Queen Elizabeth's 1953 Coronation has five magazine covers, postage stamps, a ball-point pen, seven candy packages, six children's books, a pack of playing cards, a London Transport subway map and several other items, they all have a reference to the Coronation printed on them.

The events covered include coronations, weddings, jubilees, births and deaths and it does get a bit overwhelming with so much colourful material to look at but that is one of the joys of these books, you can keep coming back and discover something for the first time.

If you want to see how the Royals are presented to the public through everyday printed items you will enjoy Mr Opie's Scrapbook.