Entertaining at Buckingham Palace is never going to be a simple affair.
Each and every state banquet (and the Queen has already hosted 110 of them) takes ten days to prepare for and requires 1,700 pieces of mismatched baroque, Rocco and neo-classic cutlery to be placed at each of the 170 table settings precisely 46 cm apart.
Crockery is taken from King George IV’s 4,000 piece Grand Service (which takes a team of eight three weeks to unpack and repack) and 1,104 glasses - six for each guest to contain water, champagne for the toast, red wine, white wine, champagne or sweet wine and port - must be laid on the pristine 175-foot dining table.
On the night, 76 members of staff, from under butlers to pages, ensure that each plate is laid down at exactly the same time by keeping their eye on a hidden system of traffic lights – blue for ‘stand by’ and amber for ‘serve the food’.
And at the end of the evening the Queen’s priceless gilt-edged porcelain is taken back below stairs to be washed, by hand, using good old Fairy Liquid – although woe-betide anyone (and if they have, then the palace isn’t saying) who chips one of the those.
Such attention to details is, says Royal Collection Trust curator, Anna Reynolds, one of things that makes any visit to Buckingham Palace ‘magnificent, magical and memorable’.
And from tomorrow (Saturday) members of the public visiting the royal residence while the Queen is on holiday over the summer will experience what it is like to attend an event at the invitation of Her Majesty at a stunning new exhibition entitled ‘A Royal Welcome.
The Buckingham Palace ballroom set for a state banquet, is part of the annual Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace
A tray with insignia medals laid out for an Investiture ceremony which is a popular feature at the Summer Opening of the Palace
Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation necklace and earrings are displayed with Queen Mary's Dorset Bow brooch (left) along with other jewellery worn by Her Majesty (right)
colorful outfits worn by Queen Elizabeth to her garden parties over the years are also on show at the exhibition
A number of beautifully elaborate evening dresses worn by Queen Elizabeth II for state banquets will also be on show
Last year the Royal Family welcomed around 62,000 guests to the palace on State Visits, receptions, Garden Parties, Investitures and private audiences.
For the first and only time visitors will be permitted to walk through the Grand Entrance, where the Queen departs and returns to the palace for ceremonial processions, outside which is the two-tonne Australian State Coach (which unlike others has electric windows and central heating).
Inside displays recreate the behind-the-scenes preparations for a state banquet, from the office that sends out the coveted gilt-edged invitations (include the red ‘blobber’ used to mark each guest’s place on the seating arrangement) and the palace pastry kitchen where staff use moulds made from the buttons on a footman’s livery to make tiny gold-dusted decorations for the chocolate bombes often served at desert.
Each state banquet involved four courses: a starter, then meat or game followed by desert and ripe, seasonal fruit.
Chefs always try to incorporate something special for their guest nation, such as the sugar orchids recently made for the President of Singapore in homage to his country’s national flower.
The Queen’s wine cellar, situated beneath the state rooms in one of the oldest parts of the building, holds a staggering 25,000 bottles, some of which are on display.
The oldest the monarch owns is a bottle of sherry that dates back to 1660 but will never, it has to be said, be drunk.
The oldest drinkable one is, by all accounts, an 1815 bottle of Madeira.
Napkins are always folded in an intricate design known as a Dutch Bonnet. No-one knows exactly why, but that’s just always the way it has been done, say staff.
The banquet itself is always offered ‘butler style’, so each diner serves the food themselves from silver-gilt platters which are presented to them on their left-hand side.
Each dish is segmented so they know how much to help themselves to, although some foreign dignitaries are known to carefully watch their neighbour to ensure proper protocol is adhered to at all times.
The Queen, of course, is always the centre of attention and the attention to detail put into her outfits is second to none.
A recreation of her dressers’ workroom shows the exquisite pale grey silk dress embroidered with Swarovski crystals designed by Angela Kelly she wore to the recent Singapore State Banquet – alongside the ancient sewing machine used to make it - and several of the hat blocks used by her personal milliner, known only as Stella, stamped with Her Majesty.
Glittering alongside them are Queen Alexandra’s Russian Kokoshnik Tiara made in 1888 and containing a staggering 488 diamonds, and the Coronation necklace and earrings made for Queen Victoria, both of which she frequently wears on state occasions.
During a state visit it is customary for gifts to be exchanged on the first day as a symbol of goodwill between the two countries and among a selection of these on display is an eye-catching Mexican clay Tree of Life sculpture present by the President of Mexico, featuring tiny figures of The Queen waving and in a headscarf on a horse.
Other fascinating exhibits include a display of outfits recently worn by the Queen to her annual Garden Parties, as well her ‘secret entrance’ into The White Drawing Room.
The passage is hidden behind a giant mirror and side table, on which are displayed several large antique vases, which swings out in its entirely to reveal the entrance to the Queen’s private apartments.
Young visitors will be encouraged to spot the door, which will for the first time be left slightly ajar.
Curator Mrs Reynolds say she hopes the exhibition will allow visitors to experience the planning, preparation and presentation that makes a visit to Buckingham Palace so memorable.
‘The level of hospitality here is simply unsurpassed, which is what makes a visit to the palace so unforgettable,’ she said.
A Royal Welcome is open until September 27 as part of the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace.
For tickets and further details see www.royalcollection.org.uk
welcome to paradise in Buckingham .
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