For some, Queen Victoria remains etched into the popular memory as the monochrome royal widow, dressed in black for the rest of her life, a black occasionally relieved by the enormous white handkerchiefs which she often took around with her, or the little lace cap, that became in a different way, a symbol of her mourning. This, of course, is true. It is an image the Queen firmly cultivated. But it…
The wooden dolls of the future Queen Victoria have long been the subject of fascination. Perhaps this is because we are fascinated by something so strongly associated with the childhood of that Queen who to a large extent, still remains in the historical imagination as…
Some of the earliest Christmas cards to survive in the Royal Collection date from the first half of Queen Victoria’s reign. These were handmade by Queen Victoria’s children and are typical of the sentimental nineteenth century; although in the case of the Queen’s…
In the Royal Photograph Collection at Windsor is an album which offers a uniquely personal insight into Queen Victoria’s view of what she wanted to treasure in family terms and what deserved special mention in a documentary way. This is the splendid burgundy leather-bound album by Giroux, known as the ‘Album of Important Occasions. 1837-1885’,may have been produced later than when the…
Across the Quadrangle at Windsor Castle is a room, clearly visible, jutting out in a pentagon shape amongst the jigsaw of the Clarence, Queen’s, Augusta, York, and Lancaster Towers and King George IV Gate. Part of the private apartments, it was merely called what it…
With 2019 marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria, possibly the most symbolic objects to commemorate this historic date, are the baby shoes thought to have been owned by the Queen, which are preserved in the Royal Collection and kept at the Museum of…
The Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace has provided the setting for many historical events, most particularly royal weddings and christenings, most recently that of HRH Prince George of Cambridge in 2013; it is only ever open to the public for religious services. To enter the Chapel Royal though is to walk in the footsteps of at least four royal brides and to process up its aisle is to retrace…
In Prince & Patron, the Summer Opening Exhibition at Buckingham Palace, a bust of Prince Albert is displayed, labelled simply as ‘William Theed (1804-91) Prince Albert, 1862; marble.’ But it is no ordinary bust, nor is it just one among other memorial busts…
An exquisite oil on panel painting by Franz Xavier Winterhalter, that fashionable artist of European court portraiture, is currently on display in Prince & Patron, the Summer Opening Exhibition of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, showcasing some of the personal…
‘Where is Pollie?’ (Lotte Hofmann-Kuhnt, Briefe der Zarin Alexandra von Russland an ihre Jugendfreundin Toni Becker-Bracht, 2009).
Princess Alix of Hesse paused to add these words, almost as an afterthought, to a letter to her close friend, Toni Becker-Bracht, from Balmoral, on 27 September 1892. With these words, Princess Alix most probably refers to her friend, Marion Louisa…
