THE QUEEN’S PLATINUM JUBILEE
We just wanted to take a moment to wish the Queen a jolly Jubilee.
Of course, Winston Churchill knew “Lilibet” from birth. His protectiveness of her was fierce and deeply felt, yet he also expected greatness from her, mentored her after she became Queen in order to encourage that greatness, then served her faithfully as his sovereign to the end of his life. Their relationship was quite beautifully, and more or less accurately, portrayed in “The Crown.” They really did like each other.
Churchill was present at Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation on June 2, 1953, an event commemorated by a stunning miniature book that we, by pure hapenstance, have just acquired. Produced by the prodigious fine press publisher Achille J. St. Onge — the finest maker of miniature books in the 20th Century — ELIZABETH II: The Coronation of Her Majesty meaures 2 3/4 x 2 inches and reprints in 77 tiny pages: “The Form and Order of the Service that is to be Performed and the Ceremonies that are to be Observed in the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II In the Abbey Church of St. Peter Westminster on Tuesday the Second Day of June 1953.” The book is one of 2,000 copies printed at the Chiswick Press and leatherbound in full crimson morocco, all edges gilt, by Britain’s finest bookbinder of that era, Sangorski & Sutcliffe.
Also by Achille J. St. Onge are two marvelous miniature books focused directly upon Winston Churchill:
KING GEORGE VI: The Prime Minister’s Broadcast reprints Churchill’s February 7, 1952 speech mourning the death of King George VI, leatherbound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in an edition of 750 copies (the rarest of them all today).
SIR WINSTON S. CHURCHILL: HONORARY CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, commemorates Churchill’s honorary U.S. citizenship bestowed by President John F. Kennedy on April 9, 1963 with the texts of the Honorary Citizenship Act by Congress, President Kennedy’s remarks on the occasion; the Presidential Proclamation, and Churchill’s letter to the President in response. All in 30 pages that measure 2 1⁄4 x 1 1⁄4 inches, leatherbound in full crimson crushed morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe once again.
God Save the Queen,
and all of us who really like her
(if you know what we mean).