A Buckingham Palace exhibition has revealed it takes three days to lay a table for a royal banquet.
The ‘A Royal Welcome’ exhibition features just some of the tools used to ensure every detail is perfect ahead of the important dinners at the royal home.
Anna Reynolds, curator of the exhibition, said: "It’s that element of uniformity that makes the spectacle so special, it’s having everything exactly, precisely aligned.
"[There] are the actual measuring sticks that the footman’s team use to make sure every chair is exactly the same distance down the table, that each glass is the same distance from the front edge of the table, and that really creates the magic."
Each place setting features a napkin shaped in a Dutch bonnet as well as no less than six glasses; one each for water, champagne as well as separate glasses for red and white wines and two more for the dessert wine and a glass of port.
Another part of the exhibition will display some of the dresses worn by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at palace parties and there will be a room mocked-up like the in-house workshop used to create royal outfits.
Exhibition reveals royal banquet secrets
