Her Majesty’s Furniture: A Royal Writing Desk, 1947

Writing Desk
New Zealand, 1947
Presented to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
on their wedding.
The Royal Collection

For a Royal wedding, the custom is for each of the realms in the empire to present a specially made gift to the Royal couple which represents the arts and craftsmanship of the area. For the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, the then-Prime Minister of New Zealand, Peter Fraser, ordered that the wedding gift from New Zealand should be a showcase of the finest artists and materials in the country.


The result was this very modern writing desk. While it doesn’t stylistically match any other piece of furniture in the Royal Collection, it is equal in its remarkable craftsmanship and its high-quality materials. Clearly representative of the era in which it was made, the desk features a writing surface surmounted by drawers which are hidden behind marquetry panels which show scenes of the wildlife of New Zealand. Designed by celebrated architect Ernst Plischke for the workshop of E.H. Foster, the desk if constructed of native woods: mottled totara, mottled puriri, stripe mangeao, kauri, towal, rata, kohekohe and pukatea, as well as paua shell. While it’s not a stylistic match to the rest of Her Majesty’s furniture, there is a rather substantial bureau of the same materials which was presented by New Zealand to Queen Victoria in 1861.