Last week, Ma diapason asked me to have a look in the crawl-space under the eaves of her house to see what I could find. She and dad moved up here from Essex about 20 years ago, and she had a feeling that some items were stowed away in boxes at the far end of this "attic".
However, cutting along story short, I have found a book which neither Ma nor I have ever seen. I must have come from Dad's side of the family - it has is father's name written in pencil. We reckon that when my Grandmother came to live with us in 1970 it came with her, in a box with other things and has remained that way (that's another very long but fascinating story!)
Dad has been gone some 18months now, and never mentioned anything about this book.

However, I ramble...............

The book is entitled "HER MAJESTY'S GLORIOUS JUBILEE 1897" and was published in 1897 in conjunction with the London Illustrated News

32cms x 40cms and bound in a hard cardboard cover with a dark green textured surface. The letters are embossed in gold.

The 54 pages are of card rather than paper, and in words and pictures, tell the story of events that took place during the reign of Queen Vic until 1897.

On every other page illustrations in THE MOST GLORIOUS COLOURS are to be found - showing scenes from parliament, state occasions, and royal gatherings, each page bordered with miniatures of famous persons from the world of politics, sciences, literature, arts, royalty, the church, and these pages in turn are decorated in what a friend described last night as "illuminated"
Each page has "gold" or "silver" included in the decoration
The text pages are in "calligraphy script" and bordered with gold.

There are pages showing royal family trees, coats of arms, maps of the empire.

Another page gives the name of every person featured in the "miniatures" and on which page it is to be found. I would describe the book as being in very good condition for its age.

Same friend aforementioned marvelled at the book. He is a printer by profession - of some 50 years - and said that the book was a treasure.

Does anyone know if I can find out more about it "online" - or are there any persons more knowledgable on the subject than I on the forum?

We're not for selling, but would like to know more about it.

Hope someone can throw some light on it

Th BBC used to have an Antiques Roadshow webpage where you could ask about this sort of thing. I don't know if it is still there or not. That would be worth a try perhaps.

It could possibly be a souvenir of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations that were held in 1897. The Victorians were very good at doing things like this, even if this was their equivalent of our free supplements in todays papers.

They wouldn't have celebrated the Jubilee without making a grand event out of it...she was the ruler of about two thirds of the globe at that time.

It may be a good idea to look at your grandfathers history. Maybe his father had connections with the Royal Household and attended the celebrations in an official capacity.

You can also ring Sothebys and make an appointment to go along. They will look at it for you and give you more advice as to what it might be. Or I expect they would have a website for you to make an enquiry on.

Sounds fascinating though...the Victorian era is my favourite period in history. Any chance of downloading some pictures of it??