Princess Beatrice makes a ‘Charming Birthday Book’ for charity

On display at Carisbrooke Castle Museum on the Isle of Wight visitors can see an ornately decorated Birthday Book, which was designed by the museum’s founder, Princess Beatrice in 1881.

As Queen Victoria’s closest companion and private secretary, Princess Beatrice found herself in constant correspondence with the Queen’s forever growing family, which was scattered across Europe. With such a large family, Beatrice had a clear understanding of how difficult it can be to keep track of everyone’s birthdays, so in 1881 set about designing and publishing her own birthday book.

Having received lessons from several notable artists of the day, Beatrice was a talented painter and carefully designed thirteen frontispieces for the books title page and each monthly cover. Each of these pages were intricately decorated with a borders of seasonal flowers and foliage, many of which were gilded in gold. At the centre of the page lay poetic extracts, which were carefully chosen by the Princess to match the tone of the month it represented. A perfect example is January, which was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Look not mournfully into the past:

It comes not back again.

Wisely improve the present:

it thine.

Go fourth to meet the shadowy future

Without fear, and with a manly heart.

By the second half of the year Beatrice had completed her colourful design and sent it to London publisher, Smith, Elder & Co., who had published Queen Victoria’s own book, Leaves from a Journal of Our Life in The Highlands, in the 1860s. Unlike the Queen’s book, Beatrice’s Birthday Book was intended to be published to the public. Following discussions between publisher and author, it was decided that the Birthday Book, costing two guineas, would be released in two editions of 1,500; the first being released on 15^th November 1881, and the second being three months later, on 16^th February 1882. While Beatrice had arranged for the books proceeds to be forwarded to The Belgrave Hospital for Children, on 3^rd October 1881 she received £500 for the copyright, with an additional, final payment of £250 on 11^th March 1882 following the second release.

 

The book soon proved to be popular and Beatrice herself was given fifty copies, one of which she gave to her mother on New Year’s Day 1882. Impressed with her daughter’s ‘charming Birthday Book’ (1), Queen Victoria proudly distributed copies amongst members of her family, with one still surviving in the Royal Collection today. Owned by Princess Mary of Teck, later Queen Mary, this particular book was used to collect the signatures of both British and international royals; and contains the signature of each monarch from Queen Victoria to ten-year-old Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II.

 

While the Birthday Book at Carisbrooke Castle Museum doesn’t contain any royal signatures, it is amazing to have a copy of Beatrice’s creation on display in a place that she also created and that continues to share her legacy. 

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