A very rare event at Buckhingham Palace

London, Buckingham Palace, 15 September 2009

The Royal Library at Windsor Castle is not open to the public but is open to research scholars. The beautiful library is within one of the principal buildings at the Castle. Until the Queen returns to London, from Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the New Zealand bookset will be kept in a safe, under lock and key, in Buckingham Palace.

Mr Ryan added that so rare is it for a book to be accepted, that when such a thing does happen it would normally be accompanied by such a reception. On this occasion the reception lasted 40 minutes, as Mr Ryan pored over the three volumes, asking many questions and examining the presentation case in detail. He observed that although his research visit to the bookset's website had given him a fine impression of the quality of the bookset to be presented, it still did not prepare him for the true beauty of the set itself. He praised the attention to detail and the masterly craftsmanship, fingering appreciatively the fine embossed work on both the outside and inside of the presentation case and delighting in the binding and quality of the papers used in the printing.

The production of the bookset was by New Zealand craftsmen, all working in Christchurch. The only off-shore elements were the fine Italian paper used for the printing and the leather used in the binding.

The New Zealand bookset honoured by this royal approval is called Godley Gifts, a trio of small books in an elegantly elaborate presentation case. The presention of the bookset to David Ryan was made by Christopher Godley, The Lord Kilbracken, whose family gifted New Zealand the unique manuscript and watercolour material used in the bookset. Godley Gifts represents an important new contribution to New Zealand's art and literature heritage. It contains, in exact replica, the first publication of 'Seadrift', New Zealand's earliest extant children's story, which is spectacularly illustrated, and the first publication of a remarkable collection of early Canterbury-related watercolours, all painted in the first two-year period of Canterbury's european settlement.

The cost of making each set of Godley Gifts was over 2,000 dollars and, in total, only 110 sets were made, of which 100 belong to a limited, hand-dedicated and hand-numbered edition.

The Queen was gifted number 26 of the edition, in reference to the year Her Majesty was born, a point immediately spotted, and with some delight, by Mr Ryan. Because of the high cost of a set of Godley Gifts and because so few sets have been produced, the publishers have created an extensive website for the bookset, (www.godleygifts.co.nz ), where all three volumes of the set are displayed in full, so that every New Zealander and many others besides, have access to the bookset, gratis. In September, last year, the then New Zealander Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, presented a set of Godley Gifts to the Turnbull Library, in Wellington.