Back in the late 1990s we bought this commemorative bust, in frosted flint glass, admittedly without knowing too much about it. Because we collect pressed glass and we also collect Royal and political commemoratives, this item ticked both boxes.
The inscription on the front is CORONATION 12 MAY 1937 so clearly it is a Royal commemorative (see larger picture and detial below).
Who made it?
Despite intensive searches of catalogues, the maker eluded us until some time later, almost by chance, we looked at a copy of the Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review for 1st Oct 1936. To our complete amazement we saw this Sowerby advertisement for their various 1937 Coronation commemoratives, and there it was in the centre of the ad – confirmed as a Sowerby item!
Then in 2007 we saw another example, this time in amber glass. It was in the Broadfield House Museum’s storage facility at Hinckley Hall, which had been specially opened to members of the UK Carnival Glass Society.
The next part of the story is that we saw one of these busts, again in amber, on a dealer’s stall - see below, and here is where it gets more interesting. The dealer also had a similar commemorative, in frosted flint glass, with the same inscription (CORONATION 12 MAY 1937) …. but with a different person’s head! Why?
The answer is in a piece of somewhat bizarre British history. Two different kings had announced they were to be crowned on the same date: 12 May 1937. When King George V died in 1936, under British succession laws his eldest son Edward VIII became king and the Coronation was set for 12 May 1937.
However, the British political and religious establishment would not agree to Edward marrying the divorcee, Wallis Simpson, and in order to marry her, Edward decided to abdicate the throne in December 1936. Although he had been king, the Coronation had not taken place, and he was never actually crowned.
George V’s second son, George VI ascended the throne in his brother Edward’s place. It was decided that because plans for the Coronation (of Edward VIII) were so advanced in Britain and around the world, George VI’s Coronation would thus be on the day that had already been fixed for Edward.
