Fabergé at ‘The Edwardians: Age of Elegance Exhibition’ in London

This spring, a major exhibition at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace will immerse visitors in the glamour and opulence of the Edwardian era.

Running from 11th April – 23rd November 2025, The Edwardians: Age of Elegance will explore the lives and tastes of two of Britain’s most fashionable royal couples – King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and King George V and Queen Mary – from their family lives and personal collecting to their glittering social circles, global travels and spectacular royal events.

The first Royal Collection Trust exhibition ever to explore the Edwardian era will bring together more than 300 items – almost half on display for the first time – including fashion, jewellery, paintings, photographs, books, sculpture and ceramics. Visitors will see works from the Royal Collection by many of the period’s most celebrated names, including Peter Carl Fabergé, John Singer Sargent, William Morris, Oscar Wilde and Edward Elgar. 

Displays will evoke the fashionably cluttered interiors of the royal couples’ private residences at Marlborough House and Sandringham House, where decorative objects and family photographs covered every surface. Examples will include more than 20 items by Peter Carl Fabergé, including a blue enamel cigarette case featuring a diamond-encrusted snake biting its own tail, given to Edward in 1908 by his favourite mistress as a symbol of eternal love. The British royal family were introduced to Fabergé by Alexandra’s sister Dagmar, the wife of the Tsar of Russia, and became avid collectors.

 In 1863, Queen Victoria’s eldest son Albert Edward married Princess Alexandra of Denmark, in the first royal wedding to take place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The marriage of the fashionable young couple – the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra – ushered in a glamorous new era for the royal family. With Queen Victoria still in mourning, Edward and Alexandra established their own vibrant court, filled with contemporary art, opulent balls and society events – a lifestyle later continued by their son, the future King George V, and his wife Queen Mary. 

The two couples were famous for their style, with Alexandra named by Vogue as ‘the legitimate head of fashion throughout the British dominions’.

Curator Kathryn Jones said: ‘The Edwardian era is seen as a golden age of style and glamour, which indeed it was, but there is so much more to discover beneath the surface. This was a period of transition, with Britain poised on the brink of the modern age and Europe edging towards war. Our royal couples lived lavish, sociable, fast-paced lives, embracing new trends and technologies. Yet in their collecting we also see a need to retain tradition and record the rapidly changing world around them, as if to preserve a fading way of life. The outbreak of World War I shattered their world, marking the end of an age and forever changing the face of monarchy.’