The Twining Collection

Koronazasi Album, Budapest, 1917, Twining CollectionThe late Lord Twining, (1899-1967), a colonial administrator who became  Governor of Tangyanika, was, throughout his life, fascinated by the regalia of Western Europe and wrote two major books on the subject – A history of the crown jewels of Europe (1960) and European regalia (1967) both of which were published by B.T.Batsford.  The former was 720 pages in length, containing 232 pages of plates with over 750 photographs.  As he himself described it ‘Too heavy to hold, too dull to read and too expensive to buy’.  His self-deprecation was misplaced in the sense that the book sold over 1,000 copies (at 16 guineas each) which covered the publishing costs of over £9,000 and left him with a profit.

The second part of the history – the regalia – necessitated journeys to Europe for further information and it was not until 1967 that European regalia was published.  This was the year in which he died.

During his research he built up a collection of books, pamphlets and photographs on the subject of European regalia which was donated to the Goldsmiths’ Company possibly because of his close friendship with Alan Boyd, Lord Boyd of Merton, an Assistant on the Court of the Goldsmiths’ Company. The Library continues to add to this gift by acquiring new books published on the subject, keeping the Twining collection up-to-date.

How do I search this?

The collection is divided into

  • Seven folders of photographs showing royal plate, regalia, portraits and pictures of coronations, together with some notes (principally European but also including some examples from further afield). These are divided by alphabetically by country.
  • Five boxes of manuscript translations of non-English books and articles on the subject of royal regalia
  • Three boxes of pamphlets on the subject of European royal regalia. These are divided by country.
  • Approximately 200 books, housed separately from the main collection.

Many of the more recently acquired books have been added to the Library’s main catalogue, but the other material must be searched manually.