The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebration continues this week with the exciting news that a new display at Windsor Castle opens to the public on Thursday, 7 July.
Called Platinum Jubilee: The Queen's Coronation, it will include portraits, photographs and even Her Majesty’s dress and jewellery from the 1953 event.
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Designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, who also designed the Queen's wedding gown, the 96-year-old monarch's Coronation dress was created in the finest white duchesse satin, with floral embroidery, encrusted with seed pearls, sequins and crystals, and will be on stunning display in St George's Hall, the largest room in the Castle.
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The couturier submitted eight designs for consideration and her Majesty selected the eighth design but requested that the emblems of the seven independent states of which she was monarch be incorporated, together with those of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
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To give the public some idea of the design process, a colourful sketch of Hartnell's ninth and final design will be on display alongside original embroidery samples.
The Queen's coronation dress in St George's Hall
Her Majesty's Robe of Estate was made by the royal robe-makers Ede & Ravenscroft from purple silk velvet woven by the firm of Warner & Sons, and was embroidered at the Royal School of Needlework, taking 12 embroiderers more than 3,500 hours to complete.
The Queen's Coronation necklace, which was originally made for Queen Victoria in 1858, will be on display in the Lantern Lobby alongside the Coronation earrings, which were previously worn by Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth on their coronation days.
The Queen's beautiful Coronation dress and robe
Brooches representing the four nations of the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries will also be on display, including the Flame-Lily Brooch, the emblem of Zimbabwe, which was pinned to The Queen’s mourning clothes when she returned to Britain from Kenya after the death of her father in 1952.
Official photos were taken by Cecil Beaton
Portraits on display will include a 2.5-metre-tall state portrait of The Queen by Sir Herbert James Gunn commissioned to commemorate the Coronation as well as portrait photographs taken inside Buckingham Palace by Cecil Beaton after The Queen had returned from Westminster Abbey.
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