The Queen's Gold Plate.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 86, 24 January 1885, Page 4

The Queen's Gold Plate.

No living monarch, European or Asiatic, nofc even the Czar of all Russians, can boast of such a service of plate as that owned by the Queen, to whose guests it is often exhibited, on the uge buffets on either end of the banquetting table in St. George's Hall— vase?, plateaux, cups, and candelabra, all wrought in the precious metal, the net value of which is said to exceed two millions sterling. Conspicuous amjng the trophies are the mimic " lyre bird " and tiger s head taken from Tippoo Sahib eighty odd yoars ago, and presented to Her Majesty's grandfather, King Geoixo 111. The lyre bird's body and tail are composed of solid gold, richly studded with brilliants, rubies, emeralds, and pearls. As he stands with all his jewelled pride, one of the costliest follies ever devised to gratify a whim of a lavish Oriental potentate, he represents a perpetual income of £1,500 a year, calculated at 5 per cent, upon his intrinsic worth. j The tiger's head once served Hyder Ali's masterful son as a footstool. It is a lifo-size model, fashioned in solid silver, richly gilt, its eyes of rock crystal and its tongue of pure gold. Like the lyre bird, it foil into the hands of the British at the storming of Seringapatam, where Tippoo himself, its valorous owner, met his death ; and as a brilliant memorial of our Indian conquests, it could not be better bestowed than in entertaining the banqueting hall of Hindoatan's first Empress.