Sensational Gold

Abstract

Gold is primarily associated with royalty. From time immemorial kings and queens have surrounded themselves with symbols of their status and power. Material splendour served to consolidate glory. As a page at the court of Louis XVI observed: ‘Ceremonies are one of the most important pillars of regal authority. Strip the prince of the splendour that surrounds him and he will be no more, in the eyes of the multitude, than an ordinary man, because the people respect their king less for his virtues and his rank than for the gold with which he is covered and the pomp that surrounds him’ (quoted in Bertelli 1990: 12). Even in the 1960s, long after the decline of absolute monarchy, the wedding of Britain’s Princess Margaret to Anthony Armstrong-Jones offered the British royal family an opportunity to display its accumulated magnificence. As Kitty Kelley writes, ‘The wedding was a dazzling spectacle of royalty, from the bride’s diamond tiara to the five gold carriages transporting members of the royal family. Inside Westminster Abbey, the setting sparkled with more shades of gold than a Fabergé box. From the Queen’s gilt chair to the Archbishop’s polished miter to the solid gold altar plate, everything gleamed, reflecting immense wealth’ (1997: 82).