A new video from inside His Majesty King Charles III's home, Windsor Castle, left fans questioning staff protocol and the team were forced to respond to defend their position. The concern was over the handling of antique books as Instagram users noticed the employees were not wearing gloves when touching the largest book in the royal library's collection.
The original video showed two employees carefully turning the page of this precious book, and the caption explained: "This is one of the biggest books in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. John James Audubon’s immense 4-volume 'Birds of America' was made up of 435 hand-coloured prints.
"The artist insisted on having even the largest species reproduced life-size, resulting in dramatic prints on 'Double Elephant' size paper (approximately 100 x 67cm; 40 x 28 inches), one of the largest sizes of European handmade paper."
The video sparked an array of comments, with many horrified over the curators wearing no gloves. "Why aren't these ladies wearing gloves to protect the paper?" and: "Fascinating, but I'm surprised they are not wearing gloves touching those pages" were among the comments.
© Getty ImagesThe queries did not go unnoticed, as the following day, the team shared a follow-up video to explain the procedure and why gloves are always absent. The post read: "Why we don't wear gloves to handle books. Yesterday's reel was popular, with lots of questions about wearing gloves when handling books. So, here’s the explanation as to why our curator isn’t wearing gloves."
The curator spoke to the camera and said: "The best practice is to have clean dry hands with no hand cream and no nail varnish… with your bare hands you can turn the pages really carefully."
The royal library inside Windsor Castle houses 45,000 ultra-rare books and manuscripts, and it takes up three rooms in the world's oldest occupied castle. It's a space that always garners a lot of attention when it's posted online, with fans branding it "amazing" and "gorgeous".
King Charles' Windsor Castle changes
While the beloved library remains untouched, other parts of the historic building have been upgraded since King Charles took over. Preservation of a different kind! The changes are driven by His Majesty's eco drive, in a bid to make the castle more environmentally friendly. Solar panels have been installed on the roof for the first time as part of a drive to reach net zero in future. Plus, thousands of new saplings have been planted across the estate, encouraging more wildlife to the area. Also, His Majesty has had electric car charging ports added to the historic building.
