Made out of gold and coral, Queen Victoria’s rattle and whistle is perhaps one of the most peculiar items in the Royal Collection. The main design consists of a whistle and six bells. It is decorated by a floral band and borders of milled and herring-bone ornament. The handle is made out of naturally shaped coral, which was used to help with teething. While at the time this was probably a normal toy to give to a baby, it certainly doesn’t seem safe by today’s standards!
©️ Royal Collection Trust / HM King Charles III
While we don’t know the toys origin, we do know that it was used by Queen Victoria as a relatively young baby. It is featured in Johann Georg Paul Fischer’s 1819 portrait of the young princess. After Victoria, the unusual contraption was used by all of Queen Victorias nine children, as well as her grandchildren. If you look closely, it also features in several portraits.
©️ Royal Collection Trust / HM King Charles III
©️ Royal Collection Trust / HM King Charles III
I hope you enjoyed todays slightly unusual blog. Please let me know in the comments below if you’d like to see more items owned by Queen Victoria and her family. Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments section below or message me on Instagram and I will do my best to help. You can also support my research by visiting and subscribing to my Ko-fi page. Don’t forget, you can also subscribe to by blog for email updates about new blogs! Thank you again, Shannon x
I had never seen that painting of Victoria as a baby holding the rattle. I love it. I will now look for the rattle in other portraits of her children and grandchildren. Thank you for this interesting post.
I’ll be honest, I hadn’t noticed it until I started researching the rattle. It’s such a beautiful painting of her as a baby. I believe it’s also in one of Victorias sketches of her children