Queen's delight as teapot factory comes to her - BBC News
She was originally meant to visit the Staffordshire firm - but it arranged to bring its wares to Windsor.
The Queen was all smiles as she peered at the array of artefacts laid out in the White Drawing Room of her Berkshire home

The Queen appeared delighted as she viewed a collection of hand-decorated teapots and enamelled trinket boxes, all brought to her Windsor Castle home for her latest public engagement.

The engagement was fulfilled five days before the planned memorial for her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The 95-year-old was shown the items by Staffordshire company Halcyon Days.

She had been due to visit the firm's factory in 2020, but the pandemic prevented her doing so.

So following the "working from home" spirit of the past two years, the factory was invited to come to visit her.

There have recently been concerns about her ability to travel and mobility, and during the extended audience with the Halcyon Days staff, the Queen - who marks her Platinum Jubilee this year - was briefly pictured with a walking stick.

But another picture showed her wearing half-moon spectacles as she closely examined the artefacts in the White Drawing Room of her Berkshire residence.

She also wore her Flower Basket brooch - a basket of gem-studded flowers set with diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds - which was a gift from her parents in 1948 to mark the birth of her first child, Prince Charles.

The firm's owner Peter Harper, and its chairman and chief executive Pamela Harper, took the monarch through the items.

The 95-year-old smiled as she viewed a series of intricately-decorated items from the Halcyon Days collection

Among the pieces on display was a number of intricately-decorated coffee cups, saucers and tiny enamelled boxes, including some of the companies' earliest designs.

Halcyon Days was founded in 1950, two years before the start of the Queen's reign, and marked its own Platinum Jubilee in 2020. It has three royal warrants.

The Queen was shown the firm's first ever "year box" - from the Silver Jubilee of 1977 - and viewed new Platinum Jubilee pieces which are dark blue and painted with platinum flowers of the realm.

She also watched a demonstration of traditional enamelling and gilding by hand by master artisans before examining several pieces in closer detail.

She viewed a selection of hand-decorated archive enamelware and fine bone china in closer detail

The monarch was reported to have particularly enjoyed the Castle of Mey tea range. Its pastel floral decoration was inspired by her late mother, the Queen Mother's, favourite flowers including primulas, pansies and Albertine roses.

She also looked at a rectangular enamelled trinket box, edged in lavender, featuring three colour portraits of the Queen Mother as a young woman.

It was released in 2005 and is adorned with Samuel Warburton's 1923 triptych painting of the Queen Mother in the year she married the Queen's father.

The Queen Mother admired the firm's pieces and first commissioned an enamel box in 1970 of her London home Clarence House. She issued the company's first royal warrant two years later.

Halcyon Days was founded in 1950, two years before the start of the Queen's reign, and marked its own Platinum Jubilee in 2020

Halycon Days has an enamel factory in Wolverhampton and a fine bone china and jewellery factory in Stoke.

The only supplier of objets d'art to the royal household, it is among just 14 firms globally to hold all three Royal Warrants, by appointment to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales.

The Queen was forced to cancel a number of events towards the end of February after testing positive for Covid and experiencing mild, "cold-like" symptoms.