The unique drawings of the highly accomplished amateur artist Ella Taylor (1827-1914) represent a rich portfolio of royalty in an informal pose. Carefully preserved in the Royal Collection, they are little known but of quite remarkable value. Ella Taylor sketched herself as well as her subjects. She also made drawings of occasions which otherwise are contained within journal entries or menu cards…
Uniquely among the early modern kings, Frederick II – King ‘in’ Prussia until ‘of’ Prussia was finally adopted in 1772, who was already known as ‘the Great’ by an admiring Europe – does not rest in the ancestral vault of the royal house to which he belonged…
Of the nine children of Queen Victoria’s children, one daughter married in London another on the Isle of Wight and one son in St. Petersburg. The remaining six married at Windsor, five at St. George’s Chapel and one in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle.
The…
With the birth of a new royal baby, I would like to explore the history of royal wet-nurses. Why were they once a perceived necessity?
In historical terms, a wet-nurse would have been engaged for a royal baby and taken on as part of an official appointment. The wet-nurse might expect a pension or some kind of financial reward, and in some cases, her entire family could benefit. These…
Consigned to Sotheby’s London auction Russian Works of Art, Faberge & Icons on 5 June 2018, was a quite remarkable object offering unique insight into the private gifts of the last Tsarina of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna. I ‘discovered’ its existence whilst…
At Hughenden, the Buckinghamshire manor and former home of
Benjamin Disraeli, arguably Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister, is a
room with a poignant link to the family of the Queen’s second daughter,
Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse. The story behind this…
A monument to a royal child: Princess Elizabeth of Clarence
21st August 2019
In the entrance hall of Frogmore House in Windsor Great Park is a sculpture of a royal child, remarkable in the sensitivity of its execution and the fineness of its detail. It may seem on first glance no more than a sentimental monument made to memorialise a beloved child and so immortalise its youth.
The hands and feet of the nine children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were so…
It is fitting that this Hessian granddaughter of Queen Victoria was christened ‘Irene’ – a name meaning “peace” – an appropriate choice in more ways than one, as her character and the circumstances of her birth would prove. Perhaps one of Princess Alice’s…
In the British Museum, there is a locket containing hair traditionally said to be that of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre.
Donated to the museum as part of the Hull Grundy Gift (Gere, Charlotte; Rudoe, Judy; Tait, Hugh; Wilson, The Art of the Jeweller, A…
“For dear Miss Jackson, with loving Xmas wishes from Alix, 1900”.
With these words, inscribed as a dedication in pencil and today preserved in a frame of its own, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (1872-1918) sent her Christmas gift of 1900 to Miss Margaret Hardcastle Jackson, her former governess from her days as a Princess of Hesse in Darmstadt. The gift came in a box, with its…
