After studying at the Slade School of Art between 1922 and 1924, Oliver Messel became a leading theatre designer. He was asked to decorate the Royal Opera House in 1950 for a gala ballet performance at which King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were hosts to the President of the French Republic and his wife Madame Auriol. Messel’s designs for the programmecover and decorations for the crush bar at the Opera House subsequently entered Queen Elizabeth’s collection as souvenirs of the evening.