{"id":10153,"date":"2022-04-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=10153"},"modified":"2022-05-12T10:05:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T08:05:41","slug":"behind-the-scenes-at-the-royal-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/2022\/04\/28\/behind-the-scenes-at-the-royal-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scenes at the royal collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Behind the Scenes at the royal collection<\/span><\/h2>\n\n

Caroline de Guitaut, Deputy Surveyor of The Queen\u2019s Works of Art, tells Janet Gleeson about preparations for the Platinum Jubilee<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Janet Gleeson<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Queen Elizabeth II in her coronation gown and Robe of Estate, designed by Norman Hartnell, who also designed her wedding dress. They will form the centrepiece of the Platinum Jubilee exhibition at Windsor Castle, which runs from 7th July to 26th September 2022. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

“<\/span>My present role as Deputy Surveyor of The Queen\u2019s Works of Art means that I\u2019m responsible for all the decorative arts in the Royal Collection. This numbers around 700,000 works, including furniture, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles, fashion, jewellery \u2013 in other words, anything three-dimensional.<\/p>\n\n

The Royal Collection is one of the great European dynastic collections; one of the most important still in existence. It has been formed over the last 500 years, effectively beginning with Henry VIII and followed by subsequent monarchs. The objects it contains furnish 13 different royal palaces, including those administered by Historic Royal Palaces, such as Hampton Court, Kensington Palace and the Tower of London, as well as The Queen\u2019s official residences, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Holyroodhouse, and then other residences like Frogmore House,<\/span> Sandringham and Balmoral.<\/p>\n\n

One of the wonderful but sometimes challenging aspects of my role is that many of the objects I am responsible for are still in use: furniture, metalwork and porcelain are used in support of The Queen\u2019s role as monarch. I supervise teams of conservators who work in different disciplines, from horology to ceramics, furniture to giltwood. We have a conservation plan partly driven by overarching projects, such as the exhibitions we mount in The Queen\u2019s Gallery and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n

At the moment we are focused on special exhibitions to mark the historic Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen. As it\u2019s the first Platinum Jubilee we have ever known in this country, and a fairly unique achievement in the context of world history, we are planning an exhibition at each official residence. At Buckingham Palace we will be looking at The Queen\u2019s accession on 6th February 1952, through the first official portraits of The Queen as monarch. The sitting for them took place 20 days after her accession. As I\u2019ve worked on this display I have thought about how we are all so used to the immediacy of image-making today. With smartphones we can instantly take a picture and beam it around the world. But none of that technology existed 70 years ago, so making an image of a new sovereign was really important: a key to launching the new reign because the image would be sent around the world via different media.<\/p>\n\n

The portrait photographs were commissioned from Dorothy Wilding, who was the Royal Family\u2019s first official female photographer. She sadly hasn\u2019t retained the recognition she should, and yet at that time she was the most successful female society portrait photographer of the 20th century, with studios in London and New York. Wilding had a masterly technique, creating stark backgrounds that enable the viewer to connect in an engaging way with the subject. The photographs of The Queen from that sitting became the iconic images of her for the first quarter century of her reign. They were used on coinage, banknotes and postage stamps.<\/p>\n\n

Meanwhile in Scotland, at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, we will be focusing on the passage of time through The Queen\u2019s reign. We place particular emphasis on her official life in Scotland through the medium of the gifts that have been presented to her.<\/p>\n\n

We\u2019ll be displaying the four outfits she wore for the Service of Thanksgiving at each of her four Jubilees, and we\u2019ll combine these with some really interesting pieces, ranging from a miner\u2019s lamp that she was given when she descended a coal mine in 1958, to a model of the Queensferry Crossing, spanning the Firth of Forth, which she opened in 2017.<\/p>\n\n

At Windsor Castle, the coronation is the focus. The momentous centrepiece will be the coronation dress and Robe of Estate. The dress is Norman Hartnell\u2019s masterpiece and is regarded as one of the greatest pieces of 20th-century British couture. The Queen wished the design to include the emblems of the United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth, and she wanted them to be in colours rather than simple silver and gold. This idea of including iconographical messages through dress and jewellery is something that has continued through her reign.”<\/p>\n\n

For more information about key Platinum Jubilee exhibitions, visit rct.uk<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Photography: Royal Collection Trust \/ \u00a9 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2022; Daniel Leal\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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