An etching showing the infant Victoria, Princess Royal, sitting in her nurse's lap and being fed with a bottle. She is shown facing left in profile and is wearing a frilled bonnet. This is another impression of RCIN 816163, after a drawing- RCIN 981594. It represents the same subject as RCIN 816158 (ASE 40). Inscribed below: Victoria –. Inscribed lower left: VR del 23 /8 1841.

Queen Victoria's first etching was made on 28 August 1840, under the guidance of Sir George Hayter who was working on his oil painting of the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (RCIN 407165) at the time. Hayter was responsible for the acid-biting of all of the early plates but was soon replaced in this task by Queen Victoria's dresser, Marianne Skerrett. The London dealers and publishers Colnaghi & Co were also used for some of the more complicated plates. A printing press was set up at Buckingham Palace in 1840 by the firm of Holdgate but some of the royal couple's plates were also printed by a Mr Brown of Castle Street, Windsor, in the autumn of that year.

Queen Victoria's first child Victoria, Princess Royal was born on 21 November 1840. The nursery life of the growing brood of royal children offered the young queen a wealth of inspiration for her own painting, drawing and etching.

Scott-Elliott no. 42