Queen Camilla cracked on with royal duties today despite her husband's brief hospital admission, as she viewed an impressive egg sculpture outside Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty, 77, viewed 'Green Man Humpty Dumpty Egg', which has been installed outside The King's Gallery at the iconic royal residence.

"This is very exciting, a real Humpty Dumpty," the Queen said as she inspected the egg. The 2ft high piece, is one of 123 that make up 'The Big Egg Hunt' campaign by Elephant Family, the conservation charity founded by Her Majesty’s late brother Mark Shand.

Commissioned by the King and Queen, the egg’s leafy design was created by artist Alice Shirley and inspired by their love of Nature and conservation.  “It’s absolutely beautiful, I loved the idea,” Camilla told the London-based designer, who collaborates with the French fashion house Hermes and is an alumna of The Royal Drawing School and Byam Shaw School, Central St Martins. 

Alice explained that her design, painted in acrylics onto a shell made from recycled plastic, was based on a combination of the Green Man of traditional folklore, whose image also appeared on invitations to the Coronation, and the traditional nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, used here to symbolise the broken state of the natural world. 

Two Coldstream Guardsmen, in full uniform, posed alongside the egg to reflect the Humpty Dumpty rhyme “All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men” which is adapted with the line “couldn’t put the Green Man together again” on the egg’s plinth.

The Queen told the artist the King would be “very excited” by her work.

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