1931 King George VI as Prince Albert Signed Royal Christmas Card St James’s Park

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1931 King George VI as Prince Albert Signed Royal Christmas Card St James’s Park:
$1375.00

For your consideration is an original 1931 Royal Christmas Presentation Card of Prince Albert, Duke of York, later King George VI (18951952), personally signed in manuscript Albert. Measuring approximately 16.0 by 6.5 inches when fully opened, the substantial folding card is produced on heavy pink presentation stock, bound at the left with its original pink satin ribbon, and finished with lightly deckled edges. The cover is mounted with a color historical illustration captioned St. Jamess Park 1660, a design independently documented as the Christmas card selected by the Duke and Duchess of York for the 1931 season.

The interior bears a printed seasonal quotation and the formal greeting With the Seasons Greetings and all Good Wishes for a Happy New Year, followed by Alberts bold autograph. The use of Albert is entirely appropriate for the future King before his accession in December 1936, when he was still Prince Albert, Duke of York; as sovereign he generally adopted the regnal signature George R.I. The card therefore belongs securely to the Christmas and New Year season of 19311932, when Albert was 36 years old and still five years from unexpectedly succeeding his brother as King George VI.

The cover subject evokes the Restoration court of Charles II and the royal history of St. Jamess Park. Following the Restoration in 1660, Charles II ordered the park extensively redesigned, introducing the long formal canal and reshaping it as a fashionable royal landscape. Contemporary diarists recorded skating on the canal before the King and court by 1662, so the caption St. Jamess Park 1660 should be understood as a romanticized Restoration-period setting rather than a literal depiction of a documented event in that exact year.

The card survives in fine original condition, retaining its mounted color illustration, printed interior text, original satin ribbon, and clearly preserved manuscript signature, with only light handling wear and minor age-related toning. As a positively dated 1931 Christmas card personally signed Albert by the future King George VI, it represents an unusually personal and evocative example of British royal ephemera from the interwar period, documenting the Duke of York before the abdication crisis and his accession to the throne.