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DISCOVER

Art, history and stories

Videos, activities and trails highlighting the Royal Collection and Palaces

The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day by Canaletto
The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day, Canaletto c.1733-4 ©

Explore Art, history and stories

      Browse through a special selection of videos, activities and trails that highlight fascinating objects in the Royal Collection and give historical insights into royal palaces.

      Virtual Exhibitions

      Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace

      Discover some of the most important paintings in the Royal Collection, including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, van Dyck, Rubens and Canaletto.

      Talks & Trails

      Queen Mary's Dolls' House

      Discover the largest, most beautiful and most famous dolls' house in the world.

      Talks and trails

      Explore collection stories

      Learn more about the works that make up the Royal Collection, the artists who made them and the monarchs who collected them

      Photograph of Queen Elizabeth II wearing coronation robes and holding Coronation Regalia.
      Collection story
      Coronations: An ancient ceremony

      The ultimate guide to coronations past and present.

      Photograph of some of Queen Victoria's pet dogs, all small terriers. They are sitting in a line with a cloth draped behind. The dogs are Wat, Dot, Teazer, Slip, Fly and Nip. Details about their paternity are recorded in the album.
      Collection story
      Royal Pets

      There has been a long tradition of the Royal Family keeping pets

      Detail showing the Marriage of Princess Helena, 5 July 1866
      Collection story
      Royal Weddings

      The history of Royal weddings as seen through items in the Royal Collection

      A gold crown set diamonds, rubies, amethysts and sapphires. It has a purple velvet cap.
      Collection story
      The Crown Jewels: Coronation Regalia

      Everything you need to know about the famous collection.

      A large dolls house
      Collection story
      Queen Mary's Dolls' House

      A guide to Windsor Castle's famous Dolls’ House.

      Photograph of Princess Elizabeth accepting a piece of cake at a tea party at the Royal College of Nursing
      Collection story
      Stories of Medics and Medicine in the Royal Collection

      The Royal Collection contains fascinating objects and paintings that illustrate the changing perception and use of medicine over time

      Portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots
      Collection story
      Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)

      Mary, Queen of Scots in the Collection

      Philippe Mercier served as Painter and Librarian to Frederick, Prince of Wales, from 1728 until 1738. There are three versions of this celebrated image; the other two (National Trust and National Portrait Gallery) are set out of doors with the so-called &
      Collection story
      Music in the Royal Collection

      Many members of the royal family were talented musicians

      Photograph of a head and shoulder length portrait of Queen Alexandra (1844-1925). Queen Alexandra is shown with her back facing the camera. She turns her head left, her face captured in profile. .She wears a dress with voluminous sleeves an
      Collection story
      Women Photographers

      The Royal Collection contains many photographs taken by women photographers.

      A set of silver-gilt plates; the reeded rim cast with fruiting vines and scallop shells. The plate is engraved with the Royal coat of arms, with supporters, mantling and coronet.
      Collection story
      The Grand Service

      George IV's spectacular silver-gilt dining service and buffet

      A silver gilt melon-shaped tea kettle and stand, with a bail handle with leather grip, a hinged lid with ivory knop handle and a swan-neck spout; the body is engraved with stylised strapwork. The stand, fitted with a burner, has a pierced apron and three
      Collection story
      Tea in the Royal Collection

      The ritual of tea drinking as represented in the Royal Collection

      Telegram from Skackleton to Edward VII
      Collection story
      Royal Writing throughout the Ages

      Take a closer look into the lives and loves of members of the Royal family

      Collection story
      Postcards in the Royal Collection

      The Royal Collection holds over 10,000 postcards

      Detail from a photograph of the Prince of Wales visit to the Great Pyramid
      Collection story
      Royal Travel

      Modes of travel and travelling accessories used by monarchs past and present

      View all Collection trails
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      Virtual tours

      Virtual Exhibition

      George IV: Art & Spectacle

      Explore the exhibition looking at this notorious lover of the arts and ceremony

      Explore

      Revisit past Royal Collection exhibitions, and rooms from the Palaces.

      White Drawing Room
      Visit
      Highlights of Buckingham Palace
      Past Exhibition
      Exhibition
      Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing

      A nationwide exhibition of drawings to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death

      Collection story
      The Lost Collection

      A project to re-assemble the works from Charles I lost art collection

      Detail from RCIN 2500256, portrait of a soldierPast Exhibition
      Exhibition
      Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea

      The first exhibition to focus exclusively on Fenton's pioneering photographs of the Crimean War

      Past Exhibition
      Exhibition
      A Royal Welcome at Buckingham Palace

      Find out what goes on behind the scenes to create the magic and magnificence of an official visit to the Palace.

      Past Exhibition
      Exhibition
      Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration

      Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration Exhibition at the Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace 2012

      Cover for Victoria & Albert: Art & Love
      Publication
      Victoria & Albert: Art & Love

      Patrons and collectors of art

      WatermillPast Exhibition
      Exhibition
      Dutch Landscapes

      42 remarkable Dutch landscapes celebrating the prosperity of the seventeenth century Dutch Republic

      Details of gondola on a Venice canalPast Exhibition
      Exhibition
      Canaletto and the Art of Venice

      Explores the delights of 18th-century Venice, from the splendours of the Grand Canal and St Mark's Square to its festivals, theatre and masked carnival

      Cairo to ConstantinoplePast Exhibition
      Exhibition
      Cairo to Constantinople

      In 1862 photographer Francis Bedford accompanied the heir to the throne on a journey around the Middle East

      View all virtual tours and exhibitions
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      Challenges and Activities

      Explore these tasks and challenges, inspired by works from the Royal Collection

      Volume of poetry open at one of Shakespeare's Sonnets
      Secrets of sonnets
      Detail from a watercolour of three flowering plants, including a white buttercup Ranunculus aconitifolius, a purple milkwort and a striped tulip.
      Drawing from nature
      Silhouette: many well-to-do figures profile left to right. Freize like. Trees left and right. (After an original at Althorp, collection of the late Earl Spencer)
      Make your own paper silhouette
      photograph of drawings and pens
      Art for wellbeing
      Collage designed by Alexandra, Princess of Wales
      The Art of Collage
      Chinese painted porcelain vase
      Virtual jigsaw puzzle
      Dolls House desk
      Dolls’ House desk
      Painting of a young Queen Victoria by Sir William Ross
      Royal correspondence
      The ring comprises an octagonal step-cut sapphire, open-set in gold, overlaid with four oblong and one square rubies in gold strips forming a cross, within a border of twenty cushion-shaped brilliants in transparent silver collets. Brilliants decorate the
      Stories in Stones
      close up of door lock
      Marvellous mechanisms
      Silver inkstand
      Inkstand Surprise
      Drawing of a lower section of the Grand Canal, Venice
      Art techniques
      drawing of hands by Leonardo da Vinci
      Hands-on art
      close up of inlaid decoration of flowers and birds on wooden cabinet
      Curious Cabinets
      An ivory elephant with separate, jointed body legs and head, ridden by an enamel man sitting on its head and carrying a pink and white enamel castle with two  rose cut diamond set bands and a pierced upper rim, the top set with a
      Elephant automaton
      View all challenges and activities
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      Royal Recipes

      Christmas cake
      Royal recipe: Rich Christmas Fruit Cake
      carrot cake
      Royal recipe: Carrot cake
      Clementine Macarons
      Royal recipe: Clementine Macarons
      Gâteau Opéra from the 'Royal Teas' cookbook
      Royal recipe: Gâteau Opéra
      Image of cherry madeleines on a decorated table
      Royal recipe: Cherry Madeleines
      Image of grilled vegetable focaccia in a picnic basket
      Royal recipe: Grilled Vegetable Focaccia
      Drop Scone with jam on yellow plate
      Queen Elizabeth II's recipe for Drop Scones
      'Royal Teas' Scones
      Royal recipe: Scones
      detail of a picture showing shortbread being cut out
      Royal recipe: Cardamom and Orange Shortbread
      Chocolate cake on a plate
      Royal recipe: Chocolate biscuit cake
      Hot cross bun and teapot
      Royal recipe: Hot Cross Buns
      Victoria sponge
      Royal recipes: Savoury and sweet
      View all royal recipes
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      People and Palaces

      Embroidery by Mary, Queen of Scots
      Detail of an illustration showing various garden herbs, from the book by John Hill 'The British herbal: an history of plants and trees, natives of Britain, cultivated for use or raised for beauty' (RCIN 1052134)
      Herbs for Wellbeing: a potted history
      Podcast - Royal gardens at Windsor
      Download PDF
      Conservator working on Ostade's Village fair
      Information
      Cleaning Ostade's Village Fair
      Photograph of the ruins of Iona Abbey situated on the Ross of Mull, a large peninsula on the Isle of Mull. In the foreground are large boulders. The central tower of the Abbey stands above the ruins of the nave and another ruined, smaller dwelling st
      Collection story
      Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands

      Queen Victoria recorded her visits to Scotland with Prince Albert

      Photograph showing a group of eleven men including the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, seated and standing around a low set of steps. The photograph was taken in Cairo in March 1862 during the tour of the East made by the Prince of Wales. The Prin
      Podcast: Precursors to the Prince, the grand tour in the Ottoman Empire
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      Quick Links
      Official Royal Residences

      The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.