Touching gifts exchanged on British state visit to USA

Touching gifts were exchanged between King Charles and Queen Camilla and the US President and First Lady.

His Majesty presented President Donald Trump with a framed facsimile of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk (the desk of the President in the Oval Office that is made of timbers of the British exploration ship H.M.S. Resolute). The original designs are located in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.

The US recovered and refitted the H.M.S. Resolute before returning it to the UK to be presented to Queen Victoria in December 1856 in a show of goodwill between the two countries. The ship served in the Royal Navy until it was decommissioned in 1879. Timber from the ship made three desks, and in 1880, Queen Victoria presented the now-famous desk to US President Rutherford B. Hayes.

President Barack Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden discuss the Resolute Desk with Charles and Camilla prior to a meeting in 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The King was given a facsimile of a letter written from John Adams to John Jay in 1785 that discusses Adams’s meeting with King George III as the first U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain at St. James’s Palace. Adams, a Founding Father, would go on to be the second President of the United States.

The letter discusses the awkwardness of the King meeting his former subject after the end of the American Revolution. The future leader promised to restore the relationship between the countries and noted that the King said he was the last to consent to the separation,” but would be the first to welcome the friendship.

Queen Camilla gave First Lady Melania Trump a brooch by British designer Fiona Rae. Rae is one of many who benefited from the King’s Trust (formerly called the Prince’s Trust), receiving advice and a loan. She was one of the first businesses to be granted a Royal Warrant by King Charles.

The First Lady presented the Queen with six Tiffany & Co. English King Sterling Silver Teaspoons and White House Honey. Designs on the spoons were inspired by the popular 19th-century “King” design that was admired in both England and America. Each spoon has the Queen’s cypher engraved.

Official White House Photo

The Queen, who has an interest in beekeeping, also received the honey as “a shared appreciation for sustainability, craftsmanship, and the natural world,” according to Buckingham Palace.

The quartet also viewed the White House’s beehives on the South Grounds.