The Museum I and The Museum II are exceptional works in Edith Rimmington's artistic production, in the sense that she never produced works of this size. The pair were made following an exhibition of regalia that Rimmington saw during a visit to Kensington Palace, which gave the artist the idea of a counter-celebration of kingship, with subtle, ironic undertones.

The King is represented with a gauntlet - the symbol of power and a challenge of combat (to throw down the gauntlet). Yet the king is also shown as a chess piece (alongside the bishop and knight), and reduced to a part in a game beyond his control. Lastly, the anachronistic airship may symbolise man's eternal (but doomed) desire to fly high.

The Queen is represented with lavish but useless trappings. The gloves and slippers are of no use to her; nor the tear-drop earrings, for she has no head. Like the king and the chess piece, the doll shows her as but a toy for some greater power.

Beatrice Behlen - the Senior Curator of Fashion and Decorative Arts at the Museum of London - has been able to connect Rimmington's works with specific items from the Museum's collection which were on loan to Kensington Palace at the time of Rimmington's visit. These include George VI's Coronation Robes and Queen Victoria's Coronation gown, respectively. The works also feature images of a sixteenth-century amethyst pendant discovered in the Cheapside Hoard, some Medieval chess pieces, carved in bone, and an eighteenth-century child's doll, rumoured to have belonged to the notorious pirate, Captain William Kidd. Furthermore, the image of the balloon reproduces one shown in a Georgian print of Jean-Pierre Blanchard and Dr John Jeffries crossing the English Channel for the very first time.

With thanks to Beatrice Behlen and Michel Remy, the leading authority on British Surrealism.