Historic Royal Palaces

The Crown Jewels

A souvenir guide for Historic Royal Palaces, printed in six european languages. It was also printed in Japanese and, of course, the Queen's English.

21 nights spent down in the vaults of the Tower of London is not easily forgotten. Shooting the Crown Jewels for the first time in 26 years was definitely exciting and made more so by a tight schedule geared around the imminent move to a new jewel house. Such priceless props could only be touched by David Thomas: the Crown Jeweller. This added an extra pressure to events. Much time was spent saying, "left a bit, left a bit, right a bit...." when all one really wanted to do was pick up the crown and move it.

Still, in spite of all precautions, the Koh-i-Noor nearly came a cropper - a story for another time.

David Chalmers and his 10 x 8 plate camera captured all the pieces at their very best in spite of the constraints of time and space. The end result was a beautiful 52 page book that sold significantly better than its predecessor in spite of several raises in cover price.