The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and those at the top table each have their own salt and mustard cellar; everyone else shares
Investitures have mainly taken place in the Ballroom since 1856. Before then the ceremony was held in the Throne Room, a grand space decorated in deep red. Reynolds has chosen it to illustrate the story of investitures for the exhibition. A Louis Haghe watercolour depicts one from July 7 1855: Queen Victoria, dressed in white, with a tiara and pearl necklace and seated on the throne, awards an Order of the Bath to a military man. Also on display is the knighting stool, made in the mid-19th century from giltwood and crimson silk velvet, and a replica of the knighting sword used by the Queen to dub the recipient. The real sword – which belonged to her father, King George VI, when he was the Duke of York and Colonel of the Scots Guards – travels with her to Balmoral, where she spends the summer.
But perhaps the best example of how accessible the Queen has made the palace are her garden parties, and the exhibition emphasises this: last year she welcomed 24,000 to three principal events. Queen Victoria started the practice, calling them ‘breakfasts’, even though they were held in the afternoon. They were, according to the painter Laurits Tuxen – commissioned to paint one of the queen’s breakfasts – for ‘the cream of London society… as well as everybody from the entire British Empire who had connections with the court of St James’s’. Reynolds says, ‘Basically they were for her extended family.’
At the beginning of Elizabeth II’s reign, garden parties served as a replacement for formal presentations of debutantes at the palace (a practice started by Queen Victoria but discontinued by the Queen in 1958). Since then they have evolved to ‘become more representative of the wider society’, according to Reynolds.
The hospitality at a garden party, while not as formal as a state banquet, is still impeccable in its detail. Preparations for the parties, which are held in May and June, start about six months in advance and invitations are sent out six weeks before the event. Guests enter the palace from 3pm, walking through the grand entrance and the Bow Room into the 39-acre garden. Pieces from the Grand Service are on display in the royal tea tent.
The Queen, who arrives on the West Terrace at 4pm, favours bright outfts for her garden parties; if it rains, she carries a transparent umbrella with a trim matching her dress. Three of her dresses are on display in the Music Room, including a bright yellow coat with an appliqué fower designed by Angela Kelly and a matching hat by Rachel TrevorMorgan, worn at a party last year. The parties fnish at 6pm, when the national anthem is played.
McEvoy says that no matter what the occasion, the guests’ experience is their number-one concern. ‘It can be very daunting to be invited by the Queen to Buckingham Palace, so our job is to relax the guests. We’re very good at relaxed formality.’