Mementoes of Queen's visit on show

Photo / New Zealand Archive

A Maori cloak and a diamond-studded silver fern are among some of the Queen's most treasured gifts to be displayed in London this month.

The Queen and Commonwealth: The Royal Tour exhibition will run in Buckingham Palace from July 26 to September 30, displaying gifts given to the Queen on her various trips around the world.

They include a cloak presented to her by Maori chiefs in 1953 when she visited Arawa Park in Rotorua.

The Queen was invested as a Maori chieftain and given the brown kiwi-feather cloak as well as a korowai - a flax cape covered in tassles.

A diamond-studded fern brooch gifted to her by the Women of Auckland group on Christmas Day 1953 will also be displayed, as will the intricately patterned dress she wore for the state opening of Parliament on a 1963 visit to New Zealand.

Other gifts from the Pacific in the exhibition will include traditional handheld fans from Tuvalu, a Fijian whale tooth necklace and an Aboriginal carving from Australia.