NARRATOR: You’re looking at a finely-crafted cabinet of coins and medals, a section of a larger piece made for Buckingham House by William Vile. Why so many? And what’s their purpose? Think of them as learning tools for an enlightenment education.

The student, King George III, was a keen patron, the first British king in many years to collect art. He went on to found the Royal Academy of Art, which still exists today. This cabinet may have played a role.

George would come to associate the faces in this case–rulers from history–with lessons and ideals of liberty and constitutional government. Medal collecting had long been a royal hobby, and his fascination was inspired by his mother, who was in turn inspired by her father. Though small in size, these objects speak to a shift in royal taste that happened in the eighteenth century. Backing up for a moment:

George married a kindred spirit: Queen Charlotte. Together, they became enormous patrons of the arts. To the right of the cabinets, you can find her portrait in the oval painting by the celebrated artist Thomas Gainsborough. Her tastes impressed one aristocrat, Mrs Powis, enough that she described Buckingham house in her diary:

MRS. PHILIP LYBBE POWIS: The queen’s apartments are ornamented, as one expects a Queen’s should be, with curiosities from every nation that can deserve her notice. The most capital pictures, the finest Dresden and other china; cabinets of minute curiosities. Among the pictures let me note the famed cartoons from Hampton Court; one room panell’d with the finest Japan. The floors are all inlaid in a most expensive manner… and frames of fine impressions, miniatures, etc.

NARRATOR: The Queen often wrote about her love of painting with her close friend and fellow art lover, the queen of France: Marie Antoinette.