Image courtesy of the Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2022
The above image shows the Queen’s Vase, a tribute to the Queen from the British Pottery Manufacturers’ Federation to commemorate the Coronation and to symbolise the unity of the Commonwealth. It was presented to her in private at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, July 14th 1954.
The making of the vase was described at length in an article which appeared in the Derby Evening Telegraph on the same day. Described by the Federation as being “one of the most complicated pieces of bone china ever to be created” five employees worked on the two “Queen’s Beasts” and the Crowns which were Royal Crown Derby’s contribution to the vase. The employees are listed in the paper as follows:
* Miss Clara Smart (69) of 18 Litchurch Street Derby (Head Burnisher with 55 years service)
* Mr Albert Frederick Haddock of 123 Bower Street, Alvaston (Gilder with 51 years service)
Mr Kenneth Perry (26) of 8 Rowland Street Derby (Caster with 4 years service)
* Mr Walter Brough (50) of 55 Station Road, Mickleover (Glost printer with 13½ years service)
Miss Mary Adams (39) of 75 Litchurch Street, Derby (Printer’s transferrer with 25 years service)
(* Staff members marked with an asterisk appear in the book signed to mark the occasion of Harold Robinson’s 70th Birthday).
The vase was designed by 75 year old Mr John Wadsworth, arts director of Mintons Ltd. According to the Telegraph “before the Coronation skilled craftsmen and artists worked continuously to have the vase ready for the Queen’s return from her Commonwealth tour” (May 1954). It is described at length as follows “Ten sided, richly decorated and surmounted by a crown, the vase is 25½ inches high and is on a base of Australian black bean wood. Without its base it weighs 20lb”.
“Reproduced on the vase are the Royal Coat-of-Arms, the Royal Standard and the floral emblems of the four Mother Countries and of the Commonwealth and the Republic of India. At the top of the front centre panel is reproduced the Royal Coat of Arms on a slightly projecting shield”.
To each of the two panels immediately adjacent are two similarly raised shields, on each of which is reproduced respectively the Tudor Rose, the Scottish thistle, the Irish shamrock and the Welsh leek - the floral emblems of the four mother countries. Beneath the Royal Coat of arms is the Royal Standard. On each of the seven remaining panels are seven shields bearing the floral emblems of the countries of the Commonwealth - (Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand, Canada) - and the Republic of India. The name of each country is printed on a tablet below each shield. India is described as the Republic of India to mark her special status as a member of the Commonwealth.
At the foot of each of the ten panels is a niche, each of which contains a coloured model of one of the ten Queen’s Beasts. Inscribed in gold around the plinth of the vase is this legend “To commemorate the Coronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II”
According to the Telegraph eleven similar copies of the vase were presented by the Duchess of Gloucester on July 20th in London to the Commonwealth High Commissioners and to representatives of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Each vase was specially adapted in that below the Royal Coat-of-Arms the shield of the coat of arms or state emblem of the recipient country was reproduced, so all are different. All include an image of the Royal Cipher in the middle of the back panel. It would appear that a vase was also presented to American President Dwight D. Eisenhower. See https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/8ow84x/coronation_vase_presented_to_dwight_d_eisenhower/
About 50 of the most skilled workers in the industry were selected to work on the Queen’s vase and its replicas, and to keep the gift a secret all members of the Federation involved in the project “pledged themselves to secrecy.” According to the Telegraph article only Albert Haddock in Royal Crown Derby “knew the purpose of the work they did on the Queen’s Beasts and the Crowns”
According to F Brayshaw Gilhespy’s Book Royal Crown Derby, a “Beast is any living or mytholoical creature which has served as a badge in its master’s shield . Thirty or forty have served royalty in the last eight centuries, so there was some discussion among experts as to which ten should serve. Royal Crown Derby were responsible for producing The Falcon of the Plantagenets” and “The Beaufort Yale”. The other eight used were:
(1) The Golden Lion of England.
(2) The Tudor Greyhound.
(3) The Tudor Dragon.
(4) The White Horse of Hanover.
(5) The White Lion of Mortimer
(6) The Scottish Unicorn.
(7) The Griffin of Edward III
8) The Black Bull of Clarence.
According to Gilhespy the “Beasts” had silvered bodies with gilded decoration and true colours in the crests. The silvering was meant to be a substitute for the stone colour of the original examples at Hampton Court Palace - see .https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_King%27s_Beasts,_Hampton_Court_Palace
The vase represents a snapshot of the Commonwealth membership at the time it was presented to Her Majesty. As far as the unity of the Commonwealth is concerned, all seven countries have remained members, but it is noted that South Africa left in 1961 to rejoin in 1994, whilst Pakistan left in 1972 and rejoined in 1989. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica 46 countries have joined the Commonwealth subsequently, although not all recognise the Queen as Head of State (see https://www.britannica.com/topic/Commonwealth-association-of-states)
It seems that the vase has largely been forgotten, but it represents a rare if not unique occasion where competitor pottery manufacturers came together to create a special commemorative piece. More than 8,000 hours are reported to have been spent on the project and there would have been significant cost implications for each participating business. Mintons sold a set of similar figures with flared bases (presumably to make them more stable) but it would have been difficult for any individual manufacturer to be able to capitalise by making replicas of the complete vase for sale. In view of the fact that much china manufacturing has now moved overseas, it would seem unlikely that this sort of co-operative exercise will ever be repeated.
According to the Royal Collection website “The British Pottery Manufacturers Federation (subsequently the British Ceramic Manufacturers' Federation) came into existence in 1919 and continued to trade until early 1995 when the company was dissolved as a result of its activities becoming fully incorporated within the British Ceramic Confederation”.
The vase made for Australia is kept at Parliament House, Canbarra. see this article https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-29/queen-beasts-vase-at-parliament-house/8012996. Reference is made in this article to vases in New Zealand and Canada. This is a link to an image of the New Zealand vase https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involved/features/display-of-royal-memorabilia/ There also appears to be a vase at the Lord Mayors’ Parlour, Stoke on Trent - see https://www.flickr.com/photos/tamla14/10309350873
You can see a number of images of the vases presented to Her Majesty and Scotland via this link to the Royal Collection https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/1/collection/57141/the-queens-vase. If you simply wish to browse through the Royal Collection use the link to this excellent resource: https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/page/1
This blog could not have been produced without the kind assistance of Kathryn Jones, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts Royal Collection Trust
John and Valerie Robinson June 2022