Tortoiseshell and gold notebook case and pencil. Applied with a pierced floral scroll border and crown with a C monogram set with brilliants at the centre; spine in two-colour gold with bright cut panels imitating a book spine. A gold clasp secures the pierced pencil. The elaborate rocaille gold mounts and crowned diamond cipher of Queen Charlotte on the tortoiseshell case suggest that this was made in the early years of her reign. The Queen however appears never to have written in this sumptuous object: the notebook inside, bound in red morocco, remains unused. The small number of the Queen's historical and religious notes which do survive, together with her diaries of 1789 and 1793-4 in the Royal Archives, are all written in simple paper-bound notebooks. It is not known how this notebook came to leave the Collection. It is not identifiable in the catalogue of the 1819 sale of the Queen's possessions. It re-entered the Collection in the early 20th century when it was given to Queen Mary by Lady Mount Stephen, her lifelong friend and an enthusiastic supporter of her passion for reacquiring royal relics.
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