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3 unusual facts about Royal Collection


Bridget Holmes

She is best known as the subject of a full-length slightly over life-size portrait dated 1686 in the Royal Collection by John Riley, painted on a scale and "in a style...normally reserved for royalty" or the nobility.

Juan Fernández el Labrador

At least two works of the painter came to Charles I of England, one of which, Still life with grapes, quince and nuts, still belongs to the British Royal Collection, which appeared in 1639 and inventoried.

Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh

It was opened in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II, and exhibits works from the Royal Collection.


Equestrian Portrait of Charles I

The Royal Collection was dispersed under the Commonwealth, and the painting was sold to Sir Balthazar Gerbier, formerly the king's agent in Antwerp, for £200 on 21 June 1650.

Françoise Marie de Bourbon

At present, in the Royal Collection owned by the British Royal Family, there exists a miniature portrait by the Venetian painter Rosalba Carriera of Françoise Marie.

Jane, Lady Roberts

On 13 December 1975, she married Hugh Roberts (now Sir Hugh Roberts), who was the Director of the Royal Collection and Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art until April 2010.

Oliver Everett

This office, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of books and manuscripts owned by the Sovereign in an official capacity — as distinct from those owned privately and displayed at Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle and elsewhere.

Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art

He is also concurrently Director of the Royal Collection for which he chairs a management committee of professional curators and administrators, including Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures.

The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew

Kept in Hampton Court Palace, it was long believed to be a virtually worthless copy of a lost original, but after six years of restoration and examination the Royal Collection declared on 10 November 2006, that this was, in fact, an authentic Caravaggio.


see also

Abraham van der Doort

George Vertue's notes on the former Royal Collection were published in 1757, which is the reason that, following its long series of the Vertue notebooks, a collated edition of the four manuscript catalogues was published by the Walpole Society as its Volume 37 (1958–60); it was edited by Millar, who later followed van der Doort as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures.

Alfred Essex

Alfred Essex executed plates for Muss, notably a large plate depicting the Holy Family, after Parmigianino, now in the royal collection.

Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour

Once again adjudication of members’ works took place in order to send another 15 paintings to be added to the 60 Canadian holdings at the Royal Library at Windsor Castle to become a part of the CSPWC's Royal Collection Project.

Codex Aureus of Lorsch

A facsimile of the codex was presented as a gift to Queen Elizabeth II by Pope Benedict XVI on 16 September 2010, who in turn received a series of Hans Holbein prints from the royal collection.

Designers Guild

A collection inspired by the interiors of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and by the official archive of art in the Royal Collection.

Étienne Fourmont

In 1711 Louis XIV appointed Fourmont to assist a young Chinese (Arcadio Huang), in cataloging the French royal collection of works in Chinese and compiling a Chinese grammar.

Museum Europäischer Kulturen

The private Museum for German Traditional Costume and Handicrafts, with the support of the Patron James Simon (1851-1932, from 1904 President of the Museum’s Association) and under the leadership of Karl Brunner (1904-1928), was in 1904 made part of the “Königliche Sammlung für Deutsche Volkskunde” (Royal Collection for German Folklore), part of the Königlich Preußischen Museen zu Berlin.

Oliver Millar

He published The Queen's Pictures in 1977, a general account of the Royal Collection, and wrote the catalogues for exhibitions of works at the National Portrait Gallery by Sir Peter Lely in 1978 and "Van Dyck in England" in 1982, selecting himself the 65 paintings and 22 drawings for the latter exhibition.

Royal Castle Library, Warsaw

It was built between 1779 and 1783 according to design of Dominik Merlini and Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer in order to accommodate the royal collection of books belonging to King Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last King of sovereign Poland.