Lot 182: George Frederick Zink (British, fl.1882-1914)

Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore (1857-1944), wearing lace trimmed white dress, pearl choker, pendant pearl earrings and diamond tiara in her hair
signed on obverse with monogram GFZ, gilt-metal frame
Oval, 70mm. (2 3/4ins.) high

Beatrice was the youngest child of Queen Victoria and was referred to as "Baby" in the family. Victoria adored her youngest child and after the death of the Prince Albert, the Queen wrote that Beatrice was the only thing to keep her alive. Unfortunately Beatrice grew into a lonely, sad, and repressed woman. She was not allowed to be in a room with a man unless she was accompanied. When she told her mother she had fallen in love, the Queen stopped talking to her. Beatrice stayed home with her mother all her life. Even her marriage to Henry of Battenberg in 1885 did not remove her from Victoria's side but she was devastated by her husband's death in 1896 in Africa during the Boer War. After her mother's death in 1901, Beatrice lived for her children, principally her daughter, Victoria Eugenie.