Coronation gown of Elizabeth II
Encyclopedia
The Coronation gown of Elizabeth II was worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation on 2 June 1953. Ordered in October 1952, the dress took eight months of research, design and workmanship to make the intricate embroidery of the dress. It featured the floral emblems of the United Kingdom
and the British Commonwealth, including the English
Tudor rose
, Scots thistle
, Welsh
leek
, Irish
shamrock
, Australian
wattle
, Canadian
maple leaf
, New Zealand silver fern
, South African protea
, lotus flowers
for India
and Ceylon, and Pakistan
's wheat
, cotton
, and jute
.
The dress, like the wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth
and other notable royal dresses of this period was designed by Norman Hartnell
. It was Queen Elizabeth’s wish that the coronation dress should be made of satin, like her wedding dress, with accentuation of regal elegance, but with no undue emphasis on shape. The gown now forms part of the Royal Collection
. Hartnell had proposed at least eight different dresses; the first, very simple, similar to that worn by Queen Victoria at her Coronation; the second, a modern slim-fitting sheath gown, embroidered in gold; the third, a crinoline
style coronation dress of white satin, silver tissue and crusty silver lace; the fourth, white satin embroidered with Madonna
and arum lilies and encrusted with pendant pearls; the fifth, a colourful design of violets, roses and wheat, the sixth, white satin with gold, silver and copper embroideries featuring branches of oak leaves with acorns; the seventh, the Tudor Rose
of England, appliqued in gold tissue against white satin and the eighth, similar to the seventh, but incorporating the floral emblems of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. The Queen partly opted for the last option but only if Hartnell introduced some colour and made some adjustments; a ninth option was drawn up and revealed to Elizabeth at Sandringham
. Hartnell also secretly later added an embroidered extra four-leaved Shamrock on the left side of her dress as an omen for good fortune.
The final version featured a Tudor rose
, embroidered in very pale pink silk, with pearls, gold and silver bullion and rose diamante, the Welsh Leek, embroidered in white silk with leaves of very pale green silk, the Scottish thistle, with pale mauve silk and amethysts and a calyx embroidered in reseda
green silk, silver thread and diamante dewdrops and the Irish shamrock
, like the Thistle, was embroidered in soft green silk, silver thread, bullion and diamante. The gown also featured floral emblems of the other major countries of the Commonwealth, including the Canadian maple leaf
, made with green silk embroideries, with a crystal vein and gold border, the silver fern of New Zealand, embroidered in straight stitches using soft green silk and veined in silver and crystal, the Australian wattle flower
, made with a coarse mimosa yellow wool and green and gold foliage, the South African Protea
, embroidered in shaded pink silk, with green silk leaves and silver outlined petals, the Lotus flower of India
, made with seed pearls and diamante, and mother of pearl embroidered petals, the Lotus flower of Ceylon, made with opals, mother of pearl, diamante and soft green silk and the three emblems of Pakistan; Wheat, in oat-shaped diamante and fronds of golden crystal; cotton, made in silver with leaves of green silk and Jute, embroidered in green silk and golden thread.
On top of the dress, Hartnell designed a plain white linen robe called a colobium sindonis
, covering the short-sleeved, low-neck gown. The robe, attached to the shoulders, was a crimson velvet
mantle edged with ermine and featured two rows of delicately embroidered gold lace and gold filigree. On the Coronation Day, the six maids of honour carried this robe behind the Queen.
Its intricate embroidery required many hours of diligent work by the dressmakers. The silk used to make the gown was obtained from Lady Hart Dyke's silk farm at Lullingstone Castle
. The dress required the efforts of at least three dressmakers, six embroideresses and the Royal School of Needlework
, responsible for the embroidery worked in gold bullion thread. The Robe of State of Crimson Velvet, which was attached to the shoulders of the gown, was hand-woven by Warners of Braintree, Essex
, using Lullingstone Castle silk and made by Messrs. Ede and Ravenscroft of Chancery Lane
, London.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the British Commonwealth, including the English
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Tudor rose
Tudor rose
The Tudor Rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.-Origins:...
, Scots thistle
Thistle
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the...
, Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
leek
Leek
The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum , also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae...
, Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
shamrock
Shamrock
The shamrock is a three-leafed old white clover. It is known as a symbol of Ireland. The name shamrock is derived from Irish , which is the diminutive version of the Irish word for clover ....
, Australian
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
wattle
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
, Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
maple leaf
Maple leaf
The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree, and is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.-Use in Canada:At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the settlements of New France had attained a population of about 18,000...
, New Zealand silver fern
Cyathea dealbata
Cyathea dealbata, or the silver tree fern or silver fern , is a species of medium-sized tree fern, endemic to New Zealand...
, South African protea
Protea
Protea is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of flowering plants, sometimes also called sugarbushes.-Etymology:...
, lotus flowers
Nelumbo nucifera
Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian Lotus, Sacred Lotus, Bean of India, or simply Lotus, is a plant in the monogeneric family Nelumbonaceae...
for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Ceylon, and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
, and jute
Jute
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....
.
The dress, like the wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth
Wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth
The wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth was worn by the future Queen Elizabeth II at her wedding to Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh on 20 November 1947 in Westminster Abbey. Given the rationing of clothing at the time, she still had to purchase the material using ration coupons. The dress was...
and other notable royal dresses of this period was designed by Norman Hartnell
Norman Hartnell
Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell, KCVO was a British fashion designer. Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to HM The Queen 1940, subsequently Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother...
. It was Queen Elizabeth’s wish that the coronation dress should be made of satin, like her wedding dress, with accentuation of regal elegance, but with no undue emphasis on shape. The gown now forms part of the Royal Collection
Royal Collection
The Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...
Design
The idea behind the dress was to produce a historic masterpiece for such an occasion, meaning that it had to stand out. Like her wedding dress, the costume was designed by Norman HartnellNorman Hartnell
Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell, KCVO was a British fashion designer. Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to HM The Queen 1940, subsequently Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother...
. Hartnell had proposed at least eight different dresses; the first, very simple, similar to that worn by Queen Victoria at her Coronation; the second, a modern slim-fitting sheath gown, embroidered in gold; the third, a crinoline
Crinoline
Crinoline was originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. The fabric first appeared around 1830, but by 1850 the word had come to mean a stiffened petticoat or rigid skirt-shaped structure of steel designed to support the skirts of a woman’s dress into...
style coronation dress of white satin, silver tissue and crusty silver lace; the fourth, white satin embroidered with Madonna
Madonna lily
Lilium candidum is a plant in the genus Lilium, one of the true lilies. It is native to the Balkans and West Asia. It forms bulbs at ground level, and unlike other lilies, has a basal rosette of leaves through the winter, which die back in summer...
and arum lilies and encrusted with pendant pearls; the fifth, a colourful design of violets, roses and wheat, the sixth, white satin with gold, silver and copper embroideries featuring branches of oak leaves with acorns; the seventh, the Tudor Rose
Tudor rose
The Tudor Rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.-Origins:...
of England, appliqued in gold tissue against white satin and the eighth, similar to the seventh, but incorporating the floral emblems of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. The Queen partly opted for the last option but only if Hartnell introduced some colour and made some adjustments; a ninth option was drawn up and revealed to Elizabeth at Sandringham
Sandringham
Sandringham can refer to:Places*Sandringham, Johannesburg, a suburb of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa*Sandringham, Norfolk, a village in Norfolk, England*Sandringham House in the aforementioned village, owned by the British Royal Family...
. Hartnell also secretly later added an embroidered extra four-leaved Shamrock on the left side of her dress as an omen for good fortune.
The final version featured a Tudor rose
Tudor rose
The Tudor Rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.-Origins:...
, embroidered in very pale pink silk, with pearls, gold and silver bullion and rose diamante, the Welsh Leek, embroidered in white silk with leaves of very pale green silk, the Scottish thistle, with pale mauve silk and amethysts and a calyx embroidered in reseda
Reseda
Reseda may refer to:*Reseda , a plant genus also known as mignonette*1081 Reseda, a minor planet that orbits the Sun; named for the reseda plant genus*Reseda, Los Angeles, a suburb in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California...
green silk, silver thread and diamante dewdrops and the Irish shamrock
Shamrock
The shamrock is a three-leafed old white clover. It is known as a symbol of Ireland. The name shamrock is derived from Irish , which is the diminutive version of the Irish word for clover ....
, like the Thistle, was embroidered in soft green silk, silver thread, bullion and diamante. The gown also featured floral emblems of the other major countries of the Commonwealth, including the Canadian maple leaf
Maple leaf
The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree, and is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.-Use in Canada:At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the settlements of New France had attained a population of about 18,000...
, made with green silk embroideries, with a crystal vein and gold border, the silver fern of New Zealand, embroidered in straight stitches using soft green silk and veined in silver and crystal, the Australian wattle flower
Golden Wattle
Acacia pycnantha is Australia's floral emblem. It is a tree which flowers in late winter and spring, producing a mass of fragrant, fluffy, golden flowers.-Description:...
, made with a coarse mimosa yellow wool and green and gold foliage, the South African Protea
King protea
The King Protea is a flowering plant. It is a distinctive Protea, having the largest flower head in the genus. The species is also known as Giant Protea, Honeypot or King Sugar Bush...
, embroidered in shaded pink silk, with green silk leaves and silver outlined petals, the Lotus flower of India
Nelumbo nucifera
Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian Lotus, Sacred Lotus, Bean of India, or simply Lotus, is a plant in the monogeneric family Nelumbonaceae...
, made with seed pearls and diamante, and mother of pearl embroidered petals, the Lotus flower of Ceylon, made with opals, mother of pearl, diamante and soft green silk and the three emblems of Pakistan; Wheat, in oat-shaped diamante and fronds of golden crystal; cotton, made in silver with leaves of green silk and Jute, embroidered in green silk and golden thread.
On top of the dress, Hartnell designed a plain white linen robe called a colobium sindonis
Colobium sindonis
The Colobium sindonis is a simple sleeveless white linen shift worn by monarchs of the United Kingdom during part of the coronation ritual. It symbolizes divesting oneself of all the world's vanity and standing bare before God....
, covering the short-sleeved, low-neck gown. The robe, attached to the shoulders, was a crimson velvet
Velvet
Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed,with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.The word 'velvety' is used as an adjective to mean -"smooth like velvet".-Composition:...
mantle edged with ermine and featured two rows of delicately embroidered gold lace and gold filigree. On the Coronation Day, the six maids of honour carried this robe behind the Queen.
Making
The dress, which was ordered in October 1952, took eight months of research, design and workmanship to make.Its intricate embroidery required many hours of diligent work by the dressmakers. The silk used to make the gown was obtained from Lady Hart Dyke's silk farm at Lullingstone Castle
Lullingstone Castle
Lullingstone Castle is a historic manor house, set in an estate in the village of Lullingstone and the civil parish of Eynsford in the English county of Kent. It has been inhabited by members of the Hart Dyke family for twenty generations.-History:...
. The dress required the efforts of at least three dressmakers, six embroideresses and the Royal School of Needlework
Royal School of Needlework
The Royal School of Needlework is a hand embroidery school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1872.It has an archive of over 30,000 images covering every period of British history...
, responsible for the embroidery worked in gold bullion thread. The Robe of State of Crimson Velvet, which was attached to the shoulders of the gown, was hand-woven by Warners of Braintree, Essex
Braintree, Essex
Braintree is a town of about 42,000 people and the principal settlement of the Braintree district of Essex in the East of England. It is northeast of Chelmsford and west of Colchester on the River Blackwater, A120 road and a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line.Braintree has grown contiguous...
, using Lullingstone Castle silk and made by Messrs. Ede and Ravenscroft of Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is the street which has been the western boundary of the City of London since 1994 having previously been divided between Westminster and Camden...
, London.