Prince of Wales’ royal collection up for public display

“Works from the royal collection are always on view somewhere at home or abroad, but this is the first time that Charles’ collections have been selected for display,” said Dickie Arbiter, Director of Media Affairs at the Buckingham Palace.

The collection includes drawings of the Tudor Court by Hans Holbein, paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn and Sir Anthony van Dyck. At one end of the display is an engraved and gilded suit of tournament armor fashioned forPrince Henry, who died in 1610 of typhoid at the age of 16 and never reached the throne.

At the opposite end is a portrait of Princess Diana, who posed at Kensington Palace in her wedding dress in 1984, three years after her wedding, for artist John Ward. The picture has never been shown before in public.

Prince Albert Edward, later King Edward VII, was given the Russian-made case 1895 by a mistress, Alice Keppel. It’s worth noting that Camilla Parker Bowles, long-time companion of Charles, is a great-granddaughter of Keppel).

When Edward died in 1910, his widow, Queen Alexandra, much admired for tolerating his dalliances, gave the case back to Keppel as a memento. In 1936, Keppel returned it to the royal family, who have kept it ever since. For the past 100 years, the royals have collected many items, out of an interest sparked by that original gift.

The exhibition covers just five princes of Wales, although nearly a score have held the title since the last prince of Welsh blood, Llewelyn Griffith,was slain after a battle in 1282 that completed England’s conquest of Wales.

The earlier princes never collected art, and not all the later ones were keen on it. For example, there is nothing owned by Charles’ predecessor as Prince of Wales, the late Duke of Windsor, who abdicated in 1936 within a year of acceding to the throne as King Edward VIII.

Prince Charles explains in the catalogue that he chose only the four other princes who were “most active as patrons and collectors.” He said his personal collection can’t compete with theirs but added: “I do share with my four predecessors the passion and excitement of discovering the work of artists and craftsmen.”