Queen Elizabeth Has a Gold Piano (Because of Course She Does) —and Twitter Can't Handle It
On Tuesday, Queen Elizabeth II delivered her annual Christmas Day speech from Buckingham Palace.
Sitting in front of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, the Queen, 92, spoke of her gratitude for the armed services as well as her growing family while also stressing the importance of respecting others and celebrating differences.
While most applauded the holiday message, many were distracted by the Queen’s opulent gold piano.
“The Queen will urge Britain to overcome ‘deeply held differences’ as she sits near a golden piano that would feed and take the homeless off the streets for a year, a carriage clock that would fund a nurse for a year, all while Joe Public stumps up ￡360million to fix her castles,” one user tweeted.
“Queen reminds us that poor people are having it tough as she sits in a room with a gold piano,” another commentator wrote.
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“Ah the Queen’s message. I love getting yelled at by an old publicly-funded billionaire with a gold piano that we should all be happier and less angry,” a different user expressed.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are visiting food banks because they can’t afford to eat and 1 in 200 people are homeless. But it’s all good, cause the Queen is here to tell us to be nice in front of her golden bloody piano,” another tweet read.
“Multi-billionaire tells people to be nice to others at #Christmas. A decade of austerity, massive homelessness and food bank usage, yet no irony in a room dripping in gold as the setting for #Queen’s speech. Is that piano made out of gold? How many homes could that have paid for?” another user wrote.
Nonetheless, not everyone was taken aback by the lavish instrument.
“Of course she’s got a gold piano. SHE’S THE QUEEN!” one tweet read.
“She’s the freakin’ Queen. If anyone should have a gold piano, it’s her. Or Liberace,” a different user tweeted.
“What the hell’s the point of being queen if you don’t get to celebrate Christmas by your gold piano? When you live in a 400-year-old palace, you can only fill so many rooms with Pottery Barn,” another user added.
The gold piano featured in the Queen’s address was intended as a showpiece for the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, according to The Mirror.
First purchased by Queen Victoria in 1856, the S & P Erard piano is made of mahogany, satinwood and pine, with brass and gilt bronze mounts, gilded and varnished.
According to the Royal Collection Trust, the piano’s surface was “painted by Fran?ois Rochard in polychrome colors with singeries and Berainesque motifs” with the “moldings and rim of the piano are bronze, chased and gilt.”
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