Queen Elizabeth II Ascends To The Throne February 6, 1952

My post celebrates the anniversary today, February 6, 1952, of the day the Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne, and some of the post is from one I did last year for her Sapphire Jubilee.

Everyone thinks about the coronation on June 2nd, 1953, but Elizabeth had officially been Queen since the death of her father King George VI sine the previous February 6th.

Elizabeth and her husband Philip had been on a diplomatic trip to Africa in place of King Geroge VI who had been recovering from a bought of pneumonia.  

The king saw his daughter off at the airport on a cold February day without a hat which scandalized many including our English families at the time.

George VI and Elizabeth, the parents of Queen Elizabeth II,  had been on the throne since 1937 and done a stellar job through the second World War.

This is a teacup made by Sutherland, England for the coronation in 1937 which was sold recently.

Philip had to break it to Elizabeth in Kenya that her father had died and that she was now queen. They immediately returned to England.  Below is one of their engagement photos from 1946.

The official coronation, which needless to say takes a bit of organizing, especially in post war Britain,  followed the next year in 1953.

The photo above I have used is an offical coronation portrait by Cecil Beaton, and the one of the Shelley China coronation teacup below is the more informal one by Anthony Armstrong-Jones who later married Elizabeth's younger sister Princess Margaret...

This is an original programme for the coronation from 1953, that was made for the Canadian market...note the price is $1 rather the shillings and pence the UK ones cost.

And every tea needs a teapot, so I have a wonderful Arthur Wood fancy one that I love. It holds lots of tea, so there is plenty!

And we have some Champagne Strawberry jam to celebrate the ascension from a favorite maker from Cornwall, Thursday Cottage. We discovered them in Cornwal 25 years ago and imported and stocked them when we had our bricks-and-mortar antiques and tea items stoes. They quality is wonderful! I happened to find this at an online British foods purveyor and got in with our Christmas goodies order we do each year...

And I found a jar of clotted cream locally so this will really be a cream tea!

And for the tea...we are having Jubilee Tea from Fortnum & Mason that I mail order every so often. It was originally created for the Diamond Jubilee. I love it! We used to stock Fortnum & Mason teas in our shop as well.

And... we must have atreat for tea too!  The scones  are Oatmeal Pear Ginger Scones from a very old Victoria magazine issue. I unfortunately can't tell you which one, because when I found a duplicate old issue I cannabalized them for recipes for my subject files...you know, when you actually cut out recipes and saved them...I still use them, but I didn't always note done what issue, and didn't on this one...

I used a lonesome Shelley coronation saucer I have in my spares stack as a plate....

Queen Elizabeth arriving at the Sandringham WI... or Women's Institute meeting on January 29, 2019

And I bet they had scones!

The recipe:  
Oatmeal-Pear Scones

1 cup all purpose flour (I used 1/3 whole wheat pastry flour)
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal, uncooked
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ginger ( I chopped very fine 2 tsp candied ginger instead)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbs butter chilled cut in pieces
3/4 cup plain yogurt (I used vanilla coconut milk yogurt)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup unpeeled finely chopped fresh pear

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a large bowl (I used a food processor) combine flour, oats sugar baking powder, ginger, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Cut in or add butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

In a small bowl combine yogurt, egg and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients. until moistened. Gently stir in pear bits.

Place dough, 1/4 cup at a time, 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.