The Queen appeared in good spirits this week as she viewed a display of hand-crafted teapots and trinket boxes brought to Windsor Castle for her to see.
The monarch, 95, was photographed looking at luxury pieces made by highly esteemed British craftwork firm Halycon Days, which holds three Royal Warrants.
She also watched a demonstration of traditional enamelling and gilding by hand in honour of her Platinum Jubilee, which marks her 70th year on the throne.
Dressed for spring in a silk floral day dress and wearing half-moon spectacles, the royal smiled broadly as she was shown the presentation.
She had previously planned to visit the Halcyon Days factory in Staffordshire in 2020 to mark its own 70-year anniversary, but plans were put on hold when the pandemic struck.
This week’s event was a rethinking of the original engagement, with the factory’s work and skill being brought to the Queen’s residence instead.
The trinkets were laid out on a white linen-covered table in the castle’s White Drawing Room, where the Queen was seen picking them up for a closer inspection.
At one point she held a small oval Windsor Castle trinket box with a red base, decorated with a black and white painting of the royal residence.
She also examined a larger rectangular trinket box, edged in lavender, featuring three colour portraits of her late mother the Queen Mother as a young woman.
Halcyon Days was founded in 1950, just two years before the start of the Queen’s reign.
The Queen Mother was an avid fan of the firm’s creations, and first commissioned an enamel box in 1970 of her London home Clarence House.
Other members of the royal family soon followed suit, and the Queen Mother went on to issue the company’s first Royal Warrant in 1972.
Pamela Harper, chairman and chief executive of Halcyon Days, said it was a “great privelege” to present to the Queen.
“We are deeply honoured and the experience was simply fabulous,” she said.
The event marked the Queen’s first official face-to-face engagement this month after contracting Covid-19 in February.
The monarch is expected to attend the Duke of Edinburgh’s memorial service on Tuesday.
