The Royal Collection Trust
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Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:15 Page 1 THE ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2008 Company limited by guarantee, registered number 2713536 Registered Charity number 1016972 Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:15 Page 2 TRUSTEES OF THE ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST Chairman of the Trustees HRH The Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, ADC ϳ••ϳ Deputy Chairman The Earl Peel, GCVO ϳ••ϳ Trustees Sir John Guinness, CB (to 13 June 2007) Lady Shaw-Stewart Mr Duncan Robinson, CBE, DL Mr Peter Troughton The Rt Hon. The Lord Janvrin, GCB, GCVO (to 14 December 2007) The Rt Hon. Christopher Geidt, CVO, OBE (from 14 December 2007) Sir Alan Reid, KCVO ϳ••ϳ Secretary Sir Hugh Roberts, KCVO, FSA Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:15 Page 3 CONTENTS Chairman’s Foreword 5 Report of the Director of the Royal Collection 6 Custodial Control 11 Conservation 12 Environmental Controls 12 Pictures 12 Works of Art 14 Royal Library and Print Room 15 Royal Photograph Collection 16 Royal Archives 16 Access and Presentation 17 Buckingham Palace 17 The State Rooms 17 The Queen’s Gallery 18 The Royal Mews 19 Windsor Castle 20 The Drawings Gallery 20 Special Visits and Research Enquiries 20 Palace of Holyroodhouse 21 The Queen’s Gallery 22 Historic Royal Palaces 22 Loans from the Royal Collection 22 Interpretation 25 Education 25 Publishing 29 Electronic Access 33 Accessions and Acquisitions 34 Trading Activities 36 Financial Overview 38 Summarised Financial Statements 40 Appendices Exhibitions and Loans 43 Royal Collection Exhibitions 43 Combined Loans to External Exhibitions 44 Section Loans to External Exhibitions 44 Staff of the Royal Collection 48 External Appointments 48 Staff Training 49 Staff Numbers 49 Staff List 50 Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:16 Page 4 This now iconic double-profile portrait of Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh was taken in 1951. During this session, Karsh also photographed the Princess with Prince Charles and Princess Anne. These photographs remain some of the best-known portraits of the young Royal Family. In early 2008, a group of 43 photographs – including this one – was presented to The Queen by the Karsh Estate. © Karsh/Camera Press. Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 13:24 Page 5 Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:23 Page 6 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL COLLECTION Sir Hugh Roberts n a mixed year for tourism, it is pleasing to report a generally positive outcome in all the main areas Iof the Royal Collection Trust’s activity. Visitor numbers remained at a good level, although inevitably below the remarkable figures achieved in 2006–7, when a number of well-received and well-attended celebratory displays and exhibitions were mounted by the Royal Collection to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s 80th Birthday. Another significant royal anniversary – the Diamond Wedding of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh – was celebrated this year in an evocative exhibition of dresses, jewels, wedding presents and film at Buckingham Palace. This display provided a strong focus for the annual Summer Opening of the Palace, generating widespread positive media coverage and excellent financial results. It was complemented by a display of Her Majesty’s and His Royal Highness’s personal insignia, received on State and ceremonial occasions over the last 60 years, together with a colourful exhibition of royal robes and insignia of the Indian Empire, brought together to mark the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence. Visitor numbers averaged 5,715 a day, underlining the enduring popularity of Buckingham Palace as a tourist destination, and the continuing appeal of the special exhibitions mounted each season. Polidoro da Caravaggio, The Head of St Thomas(?), c.1527. This drawing, formerly thought to be from the school of Annibale Carracci, was attributed to Polidoro by Martin Clayton (Deputy Curator of the Print Room) in 2000. In the course of conservation three years later, further sketches (which confirm the attribution) were revealed on the verso. The drawing is included in The Art of Italy exhibition and is now accepted as being among Polidoro’s finest surviving works. 6ANNUAL R EPORT 2008 Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:24 Page 7 Mid-18th-century clock by John Pyke (d.1762). The pine case is overlaid with paper, elaborately painted and gilded with fruit and flowers, and fitted with numerous gilt-brass mounts. The conservation of the decorative surface was completed in time for the new Tre a s u re s display at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, following 10 months of work. The very positive contribution of the Summer Opening of the Palace to the Royal Collection Trust’s finances can readily be seen in this year’s figures. As a result, it has been possible to exceed the targeted repayment of bank borrowings (incurred during the rebuilding of The Queen’s Galleries in London and Edinburgh in 2002), while making further substantial investments in support of the Trust’s principal aims and objectives. Chief among these investments continues to be the new Collections Management System, which has been developed and procured in partnership with the National Trust. Almost inevitably, given the high performance requirements of users of the new system, acceptance testing by both partners is taking longer than originally anticipated and is now expected to last until the end of 2008. Testing to date has already given potential users some indication of the powerful advances the new system offers over the Royal Collection’s current database, now 20 years old. Another significant project completed in the year was the redevelopment and re-equipping of the Paper Conservation Studio at Windsor. This has for the first time brought into a planned sequence of spaces the various complementary activities of this important section of the Collection, and has provided state-of-the-art facilities for conservators working on the world-famous collection of watercolours, drawings, prints, photographs, books and manuscripts. Conservation is an unceasing commitment across the whole range of the Royal Collection, and the in-house studios have once again completed a considerable tally of excellent work over the past year. Notable achievements in the Pictures section have included the preparation of 51 Flemish paintings for the exhibition Bruegel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting. A number of projects in the Works of Art section were also completed for the new display of Tre a s u re s in The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Highlights include the second pair of a unique set of four mid-18th-century commodes by the Anglo-French cabinet-maker Pierre Langlois; an elaborately painted and decorated 18th-century clock case (see illustration above); and the first of a set of four imposing Regency giltwood sofas made A NNUAL R EPORT 2008 7 Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:24 Page 8 One of four English sofas by Tatham, Bailey and Sanders from the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, originally supplied for Carlton House in 1814. Repairs to the carving and gilded mahogany frame were completed for the Treasures display in The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. The sofa was re-covered at Windsor by craftsmen from the Master of the Household’s Department. by Tatham, Bailey and Sanders for Carlton House (see illustration above). This latter project is part of a much wider campaign to address the conservation of the extensive collection of gilded furniture in all the palaces and residences, and it has been given fresh impetus by an increase in the number of specialist staff in the conservation workshops at Marlborough House. As ever, access, presentation and interpretation – in various combinations – occupy a dominant part of the work of all sections of the Collection, and in the past year there have been some striking successes. The Art of Italy exhibition, which featured heavily in last year’s Report, closed in London in January after an exceptional run and a stream of extremely positive reviews. To judge from its reception, it struck a strong chord with our visitors, and its popularity was reflected in the sales of both the hardback and the condensed paperback catalogues. The exhibition will now be shown, in two parts, in Edinburgh. In London, The Art of Italy has been succeeded by the exhibition of natural history watercolours, Amazing Rare Things, first shown in Edinburgh, for which we have once again enjoyed the invaluable and most generous support, collaboration and guidance of Sir David Attenborough. The new exhibition Bruegel to Rubens, which also opened in Edinburgh, is now at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels and will be shown in London later this year. As well as in-house and Royal Collection touring exhibitions, 144 individual works from all parts of the Collection have been lent to exhibitions in the UK and abroad, the details of which can be found on pages 43–7. Highlights have included the loan of 10 major paintings to Richmond, Virginia, for an exhibition exploring the theme of the expansion of British maritime power and marking the 400th anniversary of the first settlement in America. Rembrandt’s celebrated double portrait, ‘The Ship-Builder and his Wife’ (see illustration opposite), was shown to magnificent effect in the ambitious exhibition Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals, at the National Gallery, London, and Mauritshuis, 8ANNUAL R EPORT 2008 Annual Report pages final file.qxd:Annual Report 2004/5 corrected 7/7/08 12:24 Page 9 The Hague.