Crowning glories

A Bristol exhibition contains riveting treasures from past coronations

- Huon Mallalieu

TOGETHER with the rain and Queen Salote, the feature of the last coronation that remains most clearly in my memory is the guard of honour formed by the Queen’s Beasts outside Westminster Abbey. James Woodford’s 10 heraldic figures symbolising the Queen’s ancestry seemed to have emerged from Lewis Carroll’s world into ours and, for this six year old at least, may have helped prompt a lifelong fascination with history. The originals, now brightly coloured, survive in Quebec, Canada, and Woodford’s Portland-stone replicas guard the approach to the Palm House at Kew, but I doubt whether similar beasts will be on parade this time.

However, heraldry plays a significant role in the coronation exhibition that opens on Saturday at the Bristol jeweller, silver and objects-of-art dealer Grey-Harris & Company, 12 Princess Victoria Street, Clifton (www.grey-harris.co.uk). The business was founded in 1968 and has become one of the leading antique dealers in the west of England. On a side- track, I observe that, around the country, a number of businesses of similar standing and with similar stock choose slight variations on British racing green for their shop fronts; could that be a quasiheraldic use of colour to indicate quality and dependability?