Skip to the content

Objects and rooms

Content starts here

Royal Visit 1954 Souvenir Dish #2001-0086

Souvenir dish commemorating the 1954 Royal Visit to Australia; with fluted edge; decorated with green and gold wattle sprays surrounding the official royal insignia.

History

In 1954 Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia, arriving on the Royal Yacht S. S. Gothic and setting foot on Australian soil on 3 February 1954 at Farm Cove, Sydney. The Australian tour was part of a wider tour throughout the Commonwealth following the Queen’s coronation in 1953. Accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the visit travelled through the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The extensive tour was met with an enthusiastic and passionate public response, and enabled an estimated 75% of the Australian population to see the Queen at least once during her visit. Highlights of the tour included opening the third session of the twentieth Parliament in the Senate chamber at Provisional Parliament House on 15 February 1954.

Show Statement of values
Hide Statement of values

Statement of values

This souvenir dish has historic significance through its association with the royal visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954, the first reigning monarch to visit Australia. Travelling to all state and territory capitals, excluding Darwin, and over seventy regional centres, the tour enabled a vast proportion of the public to see her. As a young, glamorous and fashionable new Queen the tour left a lasting impression on an adoring public and reaffirmed Australia’s ties to Britain. This dish symbolises the close relationship between the two nations by pairing the royal insignia with Australia’s national floral emblem, the wattle. Although not proclaimed until 1988, the wattle enjoyed public acceptance as a national emblem from the early 1900s. This dish is representative of the vast array of commemorative material and domestic ware that was produced to celebrate the Queen’s visit to Australia, enabling personal engagement with this historic occasion long after the tour had ended.

  • Royal Visit 1954 Souvenir DishRoyal Visit 1954 Souvenir Dish —
  • Royal Visit 1954 Souvenir DishRoyal Visit 1954 Souvenir Dish —
Next imagePrevious imageEnlargeClose
of

Details

Depth 20mm
Diameter 110mm
Medium Ceramic
Creator’s name Copeland Spode
Impression -
Date created 1954