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 either the monochrome royal widow or
the elderly Queen-Empress of the Golden and Diamond Jubilee.
Several of these dolls are…
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…
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 was: The Oak Room or Oak Dining Room. The
room is important. It was the room in which Queen Victoria
breakfasted on occasion…
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…
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 commissioned by the Queen. The bust
had a unique place in the posthumous sculpture made of Prince
Albert and was of quite singular…
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…
Queen Victoria kept her journals from the
year 1832 up until around two weeks before her death in 1901. Her
voluminous correspondence is well known; indeed, it was averaged by
the author Giles St Aubyn that the Queen wrote up to some 2,500
words per day (Christopher Hibbert…
‘Islay [a pet dog] is still plagued by
him [Lord Melbourne] every evening—a thing which he much enjoys—and
constantly begs for the spectacles. I forgot to tell you that Karl
has given me a pretty little Rowley, who likewise lives in the
house. The multitude of dogs is really terrible!’ (ed. A. C. Benson
& Viscount Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 1, 1837-1843,
204). So the…
