2-970-778 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Regalia. - 4', c1911. '1. Coronation Gloves; 2. The Anointing Spoon; 3. Coronation Bracelets; 4. The Spurs; 5. The Ampulla for the Anointing'. The anointing spoon is '...of pure gold...[and has] four pearls in the broadest part of the handle'. [The spoon is first recorded in 1349 as preserved among St Edward's Regalia in Westminster Abbey]. 'The armillae, or bracelets. are [also] of solid fine gold...edged with rows of pearls'. 'The ampulla is an antique vessel...used for containing the holy oil at Coronations. It resembles an eagle with expanded wings, and is finely chased; the head screws off at the middle of the neck, for pouring in the oil, and the neck being hollow to the beak, the latter serves as a spout, through which the consecrated oil is poured into the anointing spoon'. From "The Portrait Book of Our Kings and Queens 1066-1911", edited by T. Leman Hare. [T. C. & E. C. Jack, London & Edinburgh]