Object Description
A fine silver mounted presentation penholder Commemorating the Laying Down of the Battleship HMS King George V made from the Timbers of the Royal Yacht the Royal George, 1911
This fine and elaborate oak inkstand consists of an oak base, made from timbers salvaged from the Royal yacht Royal George and then fitted with a large silver plated pen tray, two inkwells and two engraved presentation plaques. The plaques record the fact that this piece was made in the form of a keel plate to commemorate the laying down of the battleship HMS King George V, the ceremony carried out by Lady Curzon-Howe who received this fine piece in return for her service.
HMS King George V
The first of the fleet of new battleships designed to meet Britain’s requirements from 1911 onwards, King George V served with distinction in both the home and grand fleets, often serving as the flagship. She was famously involved in the fierce fighting at the Battle of Jutland and, after the war, continued to serve as flagship of the home fleet before later serving in the Mediterranean. She was finally scrapped in 1926 after a further period in use in the reserves and as a training ship.
Lady Curzon-Howe
Born in 1887, Mary Curzon, Lady Curzon-Howe, married her cousin Francis Curzon, Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, in 1907. She was a celebrated society figure and one of the great beauties of her age, famously referred to as the ‘Queen of Beauty’ having played that role in the revival of the Eglinton Tournament in 1912. Cecil Beaton, in his The Book of Beauty, referred to Lady Curzon-Howe as ‘the elegance of the aristocrat combined with the excessive prettiness that accompanies carnation-pink cheeks and yellow hair. She is gracefully statuesque, her height is superb, her neck swan-like, and her poreless complexion is like icing-sugar on a birthday cake….there is no living beauty who can create more of an effect than she when entering a ballroom or sitting in a box at the opera’.