King George V and Queen Mary, Coronation
Jun. 22, 1959 - Dear Mrs. Jekeley, In reply to your letter of the 18th, with which you enclosed two photostats of King George V and Queen Mary. At the time these pictures were taken, which was their Coronation day in 1910, colour photography had not even been thought of, let alone invented. I'm afraid, for us to get these two pictures coloured by an artist, would take too long to arrange and might possibly be too late when they reached you. I suggest that your client get the pictures coloured themselves. The colors would be quite simple. The colours for George V would be ? the ermine white, the robe red (what little is seen of it), the crown red velvet base, ornamented in gold with white ermine brim. As far as I remember, his beard was dark brown and he had brown eyes. As to Queen Mary, I am almost certain her Coronation dress was silver ? gray (I think it always is for Coronations). Her hair, I believe, was titian brown and her eyes bluey-green. Anyway, we gave you a colour print of Queen Mary, so they will be able to check with that. The colour of the crown is the same as the King's. Mr. Davis will look amongst his files, to see if he has any old copies of Illustrated London News, which might show color reproductions. If so, he will bring it in to me tomorrow morning
