The curator passed me the tiny fitted eighteenth century jacket. The solid gold buttons, along with the hand-stitched trimmings in precious threads, stood out against the beautiful dark blue velvet.

‘Check the silver embroidery on the seam of the sleeve’, instructed the curator.

I traced a name thinly stitched in cursive writing. It was not that of the prince who wore the garment, however. Rather, like all the clothes of the children of the French royal family, the jacket sported the name of his mother the Queen.