I say, is one’s crown straight?
THEY give us a glimpse of the Queen as we rarely see her.
Newly released candid photographs show an endearing side to the monarch which is usually hidden behind her regal pose during her official duties.
In one image, she is captured carefully placing her crown on her head in front of a mirror in a drawing room at Buckingham Palace.
Another shows her being helped into a velvet cloak by her assistant, Angela Kelly. The charming set of photographs was taken by Nina Duncan who was helping with the lighting during a two- day official photo-shoot in 2004.
Miss Duncan was the assistant to Chris Levine who had been commissioned to create a holographic portrait of the Queen to commemorate 800 years of allegiance to the Crown by the island of Jersey.
The Queen posed for more than 10,000 pictures over two days, some of which were taken by Miss Duncan on a small digital camera. She said: ‘People have seen hundreds of pictures of the Queen, but these show a different side to her.
‘Some of the people in the room were in awe of her, but I took a different point of view. I saw this wonderful little old lady who reminded me of my nana.
‘I was quite surprised she put her own crown on her head. I thought someone would do that for her.
‘There wasn’t a lot of pomp and ceremony around her. She just put it on and we got on with the job.’ The final hologram was mounted in glass and illuminated by a blue neon light. The holographic image is now being used on a special £100 banknote which will be issued by Jersey to mark the Diamond Jubilee.
A £10 stamp also featuring the hologram is being issued. Both will go on sale on June 1.
Senator Philip Ozouf, Jersey’s treasury minister, said: ‘In order to issue a new £100 note [we] amended the existing 1959 law which limited the maximum denomination of any currency note to £50. This is an appropriate way for Jersey to celebrate its loyalty to the Crown.’
Mr Levine said that the Queen had been ‘tickled by the idea of being made into a hologram’.
He added: ‘When I got the call for the commission I thought it was someone playing games.
‘It seemed so far-fetched and hard to believe that, until an official date was set, I told myself that I shouldn’t get too attached to the idea because I imagined it would all fall through.’