Queen Camilla resumed her duties today, inspecting a giant “Green Man Humpty Dumpty Egg” outside Buckingham Palace. This marks her first public engagement since King Charles was briefly hospitalized last week due to side effects from his cancer treatment.
All smiles, Camilla expressed her excitement as she admired the two-foot-tall sculpture, exclaiming, “This is very exciting, a real Humpty Dumpty!”
Installed in front of the King’s Gallery, the egg sculpture is part of “The Big Egg Hunt” campaign organized by Elephant Family, the conservation charity established by her late brother, Mark Shand.
Commissioned by the King and Queen, the egg features a leafy design created by artist Alice Shirley, inspired by their passion for nature and conservation.
“It’s absolutely beautiful; I loved the idea,” Camilla praised the London-based designer, who collaborates with the French fashion house Hermès and is an alumna of The Royal Drawing School and Byam Shaw School at Central St. Martins.
Alice explained that her design, painted in acrylics on a shell made from recycled plastic, draws from both the Green Man of traditional folklore—a symbol also featured on invitations to the Coronation—and the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, symbolizing the fractured state of the natural world.
Two Coldstream Guardsmen in full uniform posed alongside the egg, reflecting the rhyme that goes, “All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men,” which is adapted on the plinth to read, “couldn’t put the Green Man together again.”
The Queen remarked that King Charles would be “very excited” by Alice’s work. After the event, Alice shared that Camilla had been a “huge supporter” of her art since she studied at the Royal Drawing School in 2009 and owns several of her pieces, including an ink drawing of a gorilla and a painting of a leopard, gifted to the King for his 70th birthday.
Speaking of the egg, which took her a month to complete, Alice said, “It’s the kind of commission you can’t say no to.” She continued to work on it until earlier today, repairing minor chips in the shell with gold leaf.
Their Majesties serve as joint patrons of Elephant Family, which collaborates with conservation experts to address the challenges facing Asian wildlife and the communities that coexist with them. The egg sculptures will be auctioned to raise funds for their initiatives.
Other artists and brands contributing to the egg designs include Anya Hindmarch, Philip Colbert, Duncan Campbell, Charlotte Rey, LUAP, Fortnum & Mason, and Chopard.
Members of the public can “collect” the eggs via The Big Egg Hunt app while following a trail that spans locations including Chelsea, Canary Wharf, Covent Garden, and Marble Arch, as well as landmarks like Battersea Power Station, the Barbican, the British Museum, and the Royal Albert Hall.
