THE ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST
Press Release
Notebook in which Queen Victoria recorded her
Diamond Jubilee celebrations goes on display
EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01, 23 FEBRUARY 2012
Treasures from The Queen’s Palaces
The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse
16 March – 4 November 2012
A Fabergé notebook in which Queen
Victoria recorded guests who
attended her Diamond Jubilee
celebrations is to go on display in the
exhibition Treasures from The
Queen’s Palaces at The Queen’s
Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse
from 16 March. The Queen signed
and dated the notebook herself. On
every other page are the signatures of
her guests, who included crowned
Queen Victoria records the date of her Diamond
heads of Europe. Many had attended
Jubilee in the Fabergé notebook
the dinner at Buckingham Palace on the
evening before the official Jubilee commemoration on 22 June 1897. Queen Victoria
later described that evening in her journal. She wrote, ‘The dinner was in the Supper
Room…All the family, foreign Royalties, special Ambassadors & Envoys were invited. I
sat between the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand & the Pce of Naples.’
The exhibition Treasures from The Queen’s Palaces reflects the tastes of monarchs
and other members of the royal family who have shaped the Royal Collection over the
past five centuries. The selection of 100 outstanding works has been made across the
entire breadth of the Collection and from nine royal residences. It includes paintings,
drawings, miniatures, watercolours, manuscripts, furniture, sculpture, ceramics and
jewellery. Most items will be shown in Scotland for the first time.
The notebook is one of more than 20 pieces of Fabergé to go on display in the
exhibition, which marks Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in Scotland.
Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II are the only two sovereigns in the history of the
British Monarchy to have reached this milestone.
The notebook was purchased in St Petersburg in December 1896 for 250 roubles and
given to Queen Victoria as a Christmas present by Tsar Nicholas II and his wife,
Alexandra Feodorovna, after their visit
to Balmoral Castle, in Scotland, earlier
that year. It is inscribed by the Tsar and
Tsarina, ‘For Dearest Grandmama from
Nicky and Alix… Xmas 1896’. The
Queen wrote fondly of their visit, ‘It
seems quite like a dream having dear
Alicky & Nicky here.’ During the visit
the Tsarina showed Queen Victoria
some of her jewels, many of which were
supplied by Fabergé. Victoria wrote,
‘Alix showed me her beautiful jewels, of
which she has quantities, all her own private property.’ Although a highly practical
object, the notebook displays the finest techniques employed by Carl Fabergé, the great
jeweller and goldsmith of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The silver-gilt case is
engine-turned with geometric and sunburst patterns and enamelled in red and oyster –
an outstanding example of Fabergé’s famous revival of guilloché enamelling. The
surface is embellished with silver-gilt laurel wreaths, stylised flowers and foliage. The
pencil, concealed in the hinge, is set with cabochon moonstones at either end.
Queen Victoria in a carriage, with Tsar Nicholas
II, his wife and others at Balmoral in 1896
Successive generations of the Royal Family created the royal collection of works by
Fabergé, which today is unparalleled in size, range and quality. Two of Fabergé’s
Imperial Easter Eggs will also be on display in the exhibition. They include the Mosaic
Egg, one of the most sophisticated and extraordinary of the Russian master’s works.
Inside it holds a ‘surprise’ in the form of a medallion painted with the portraits of the five
children of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife. The Egg was the Tsar’s Easter gift to his wife
in 1914 and was among the many treasures confiscated after their deaths. It was
purchased by King George V in 1933, probably for Queen Mary’s birthday on 26 May.
Tickets and visitor information: www.royalcollection.org.uk or 0131 556 5100.
For further information and photographs, please contact the Royal Collection Press
Office, +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected]. A selection of images is also
available from www.picselect.com.
www.royalcollection.org.uk
Admission to The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse is managed by the Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity in
England and Wales (1016972) and in Scotland (SCO39772)