Royal Blue (Lot 28)
Sponsor: Fox & Castle • Artist: Jessica Palmer
About the lion Royal Blue is decorated with animals and birds posing as Kings and Queens - portraits of famous former residents of Windsor Castle. There is Henry Vlll as a whiskery pig, Queen Victoria as a golden-eyed owl and Anne Boleyn as a fluffy white cat. Some of the creatures' faces are inspired by pets belonging to Royal Blue's sponsor - animal lover Nick Bayldon Pritchard who owns pubs in Windsor, including the Fox & Castle. Royal Blue's coat is flecked with gold leaf and his eyes are golden wooden buttons, whilst his mane is painted in the manner of an old-fashioned merry-go-round lion.
About the sponsor The Fox And Castle is in parts 500 years old. It is your quintessential Black & White timbered building. According to the local historian there has been a pub on this site since 1216 a year after the Magna Carta was signed. We have adequate parking for cars and coaches and a very large garden probably seat in excess of a 100. We are family and dog friendly, log fires in winter and pimms in the summer. We have around 40 whiskies and 40 specialist gins oh and a great wine list. We can cater for large parties pre booked and serve very high quality traditional English pub food. The building in its time has been in parts a butcher a baker sadly not a candle stick maker. We as new owners have since December 20th 2018 taken on The Fox And Castle and completely refurbished the property, we are a small Pub company that already own four pubs in the neighbouring town of Windsor namely The Horse & Groom outside the gates of Windsor Castle, The Waterman’s Arms in Historic Eton The piper Bar & Queen Vic.
About the artist Jessica Palmer is a UK-based artist. She is available for commission. Her work spans collage, paper sculpture, paper cutting, digital drawing and painting. Her clients include Disney Pixar, Skira Rizzoli, the New York Historical Society, Hampton Court Palace, the V&A, the Garden Museum, English Heritage and many more. She is the author of The Art of Papercutting (Search).
Where? In the lovely garden of the newly refurbished Fox & Castle pub in Old Windsor, 21 Burfield Road, Old Windsor, SL4 2RB. Open 1200-2300.