To mark 100 years since the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, a special edition of Antiques Roadshow, filmed at Windsor Castle, takes a peek inside the Royal Collection.
Here, presenter Fiona Bruce picks her favourite items from the show – which also features mementos from members of the public – and considers what they tell us about key moments of the monarch’s life.
As told to Robin Parker.
Coronation dress (1953)
“It’s stupendous – there’s no other way of putting it. The dress is a remarkable witness to an incredible point in our history. Designer Norman Hartnell came up with nine ideas and she picked this one, the ninth. Its design tells us so much about her and about us as a nation at the time, and where she saw our place in the world, in terms of the different things she chose to have embroidered on that dress.
“In addition to the traditional gold and white, she wanted colour, and alongside the thistle for Scotland, shamrock for Ireland, rose for England and leek for Wales, she wanted it to include the emblems of the dominions. There’s a lotus, representing India and Sri Lanka (at the time called Ceylon), yellow wattle for Australia, silver fern for New Zealand), a maple leaf for Canada, cotton and jute (Pakistan) and a pink protea flower for South Africa.
“Among the three leaf clovers, Hartnell made a special addition: one four leaf clover, positioned to be just over the Queen’s hand so she could touch it for good luck when she walked down the nave of Westminster Abbey.
“What struck me very forcefully was how young and slight she was when she was crowned. This dress would have been extremely heavy and she’s carrying that, but it signified the weight of all our hopes and expectations at the time. That must have been on her mind when she put it on.”
Stamp (1967)
“The profile image of Her Majesty on designer Arnold Machin’s stamp is one of the most reproduced images of all time. It’s something we all know, and we’ve seen more times than we could possibly count. But it never occurred to me that these might not be the Queen’s shoulders!
“Machin’s first design stopped at the neck, but the Palace said they wanted her shoulders in it too. But rather than make her sit for it again, Angela Hewins, a family friend, modelled at her mum’s house with a pair of old curtains round her shoulders. What I love about that is that it’s something entirely unexpected from something so utterly familiar.”
Infant dress (1927)
“This beautiful fine cotton dress was made by Smith & Co of Sloane Street and worn by the Queen as a one-year-old. It has some beautiful detail around the waist, originally threaded by silk ribbon, and has repeated flounces of pleats around the sleeves.
“It made me think about my own toddlers’ clothes, most of which were stained with carrot puree! Not this one – it remains pristine, almost a century on. There’s no remnant of mashed banana on it. I’m sure Her Majesty behaved like any other toddler, but these clothes were looked after, washed, pressed and cared for with an eye to the future as well – it’s inconceivable that any other family that would have clothes that pristine from that period of their life.”
Pantomime costumes from royal dressing up box (1943)
“These costumes, worn by the Queen and her sister Margaret, are just extraordinary. It’s incredible that their sisters’ pantomimes only came to light when the paintings were taken down in the restoration of the Palace’s Waterloo Chamber in 2022. The conservators saw these murals behind which were the backdrop for the stage productions.
“They’re two of seven surviving pantomime costumes – one from when she played Aladdin in 1943 and the other from their final performance, Old Mother Red Riding Boots.
“They’re so beautifully made, and they must have had such fun wearing them. Who didn’t like dressing up when they were young? Again, these have been immaculately kept and preserved. It’s a story of Palace life and life in Britain during wartime, when the paintings were taken down. Children wanted their space. They wanted their fun. And they found a way in that very special room to turn that into a children’s playground.
“People in the local community could buy tickets and the proceeds went towards raising funds for the war effort. They had the most extraordinary people designing the costumes and the backdrops and everything else and doing the stage production. It wasn’t just the kind of thing someone might put on a village hall. It was something really special.”
Royal gifts
“The Palace’s collection of gifts, in a rotating exhibition at Windsor Palace, says so much about the givers. In the programme, we see Barbara Hepworth’s first work in gold, presented in Truro in 1966, and a Maori Nephrite club sent as a symbol of peace and reconciliation in the Commonwealth in 1964.
“There’s also this magnificent silk scarf based on a cave painting, presented to the Queen by Nelson Mandela during his state visit to the UK in 1996, not long after his release from prison. It was well reported at the time how famously they got on.
“But one of the stories that sticks in my mind – and we can’t say if it’s absolutely true, but it’s a great story – is that she was once given a crocodile that was put in a bath at the Palace while they worked out where on earth it was going to end up. It was safely dispatched to a zoo in the end!”
State occasion dresses (1970s, 1980s)
“These were both made by Ian Thomas, who had trained with Norman Hartnell. There’s an elegant dress worn on evening occasions on foreign tours on the royal yacht Britannia and the pink one was worn in 1986 during her historic state visit to China.
“They emanate diplomacy through the embroidery and the material. As with the Coronation dress, she’s trying to merge both the woman who was wearing it and had to be comfortable in it while sending a message about being a head of state just by her very presence.
“There was a lot of soft power in the way she dressed; she reflected and flattered the country she was visiting. You can’t fail to be struck by that. They are constructed so meticulously – the 1986 dress has a spray of Chinese tree peony, a national symbol and a symbol of long life and prosperity.”
Rocking horse, 2016
“Burmese, the Queen’s favourite horse, was given to her by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1969. This wooden replica was made for her 90th birthday and has this delightful secret compartment hidden in its bottom. A drawer pops out with a maple leaf on it to symbolise Canada, and inside there was originally a bottle of maple syrup.
“A rocking horse is just a small token, reflecting how important horses were to the Queen. When I was covering her funeral for the BBC, the man who was responsible for her horses came past where we were and said that he was going to take a black pony that she rode right up to the end of her life down Windsor, past Green Park and stand there as a funeral procession passed, and sure enough, that’s exactly what he did. It was an incredibly moving moment. As someone who loves horses myself, I totally get that.”
Antiques Roadshow special Remembering Queen Elizabeth II airs on Sunday 19 April at 8pm on BBC One.
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