LONDON -- What do you get the person who can ask the taxpayer for everything? That's the question that's stumped presidents and heads of state over the years as they've paid visits to the Queen at her Buckingham Palace pad. Silverware's a bit passé and giving jewellery is somewhat gauche -- how about a squirt of horse's sperm?
The British Royals tend to play host to two state visits per year and the tradition of gift exchanges goes back centuries. Henry VIII and Francis I of France swapped pressies back in 1520 and monarchs have been showered with gifts ever since. George III bagged a cheetah in 1764 while George IV raised him a giraffe in 1827.
As the Queen and President of Mexico peruse some of the gifts given to Her Majesty by Mexico this week, here's a look at some of the oddest presents Elizabeth II has received over the years -- aside from the snail shells, prawns, Burmese horses, turtles, black beavers, her shark tooth sword from the Pacific island of Kiribati and the dog soap from an Australian mining town.
If Buckingham Palace ever did Cash in the Attic, they'd raise a bob or two.
Two sloths
500 cases of tinned pineapple
Whale teeth
A Maori canoe
Cowboy boots
A wine cooler shaped like a grasshopper
In 1972 President Pompidou of France gave the Queen& Duke of Edinburgh a wine cooler shaped like a giant grasshopper pic.twitter.com/U4rtckG7F1 — Mace (@RoyaleVision) December 22, 2014
The ultimate in kitsch, this grasshopper wine cooler was a present from President Pompidou of France in 1972. If you rotate its wings it becomes a drinks table.
This totem pole
Horse sperm
An iron throne
The #IronThrone as you've never seen it before... @GameofThrones A photo posted by The British Monarchy (@the_british_monarchy) on Jun 24, 2014 at 3:48am PDT