XL "Sixty Years a Queen" Half Red Moroccan Leather Book

Written In English

Highly Illustrated

13" H x 10" W x 1.25" D

“Sixty Years a Queen” was published in 1897 by Eyre & Spottiswoode, Her Majesty’s Printers, and issued by Harmsworth Brothers in London, timed to coincide with Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and to commemorate her six decades on the throne. Written by Sir Herbert Maxwell, a noted historian and Member of Parliament, the book chronicles the sweep of Victoria’s reign, from her accession in 1837 as a young monarch under the lingering influence of the Regency, through the energy and vision of Prince Albert (spotlighted in chapters on the Great Exhibition and social reform), to the Empire’s expansion and the political currents of Disraeli, Gladstone, and their peers. It was conceived as an official, richly illustrated retrospective “told by special permission” of the Royal Collections, to cast the Jubilee as both a personal and national milestone.

As a presentation volume, this copy is bound in deep crimson pebble-grain morocco with half-leather corners and spine, all edges ruled in gilt. The spine is divided by raised bands into gilt-tooled compartments sporting ornate floral motifs and the author’s name in gilt, while gilt-ruled blind tooling frames each cover and a gilt crown surmounts the title on the front board. Inside, marbled pastedowns and endpapers echo the era’s taste for vibrant pattern, and every fore-edge gleams with gilt. The binding, complete with gilt dentelles and a chromolithograph frontispiece of Victoria in her robes, marks the book as both a historical record and a keepsake of regal pageantry.

Condition:

This remains sound and display-worthy, with tight hinges and bright gilt still catching the light. The morocco shows light rubbing at the spine ends and corners, and the boards bear minor surface scuffs, but no significant leather loss. The marbled endpapers are clean and unfaded, and the chromolithograph frontispiece is crisp with only trivial spotting on its tissue guard. All pages are intact, free from tears, with edges uniformly gilt and only slight toning at the margins.