Llama and elephant among Queen’s Diamond Jubilee gifts

Gifts ranged from expensive diamond jewellery and bottles of whisky and Champagne to artwork and even quirky mementos like a Jubilee-themed dog’s bed based on a crown.

But the most unusual was from the unknown well-wishers who gave the Queen honorary ownership of a baby llama and adoption of a baby Asian elephant.

US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were among the foreign figures to mark the Queen’s 60-year reign – giving the monarch a 1950s Tiffany & Co silver compact.

Singapore president Tony Tan’s present was a gold and diamond brooch depicting a bird of paradise, while Sali Berisha, prime minister of Albania, gave a framed silverwork waistcoat.

Among the unsolicited Diamond Jubilee gifts, thought to be mostly from members of the public, were 436 books, 235 CDs and DVDs, 81 pieces of embroidery or knitting, 78 portraits of the Queen, 19 tea towels and nine jigsaws.

The British Jewellers’ Association gave the Queen a Diamond Jubilee brooch made from platinum, Welsh gold, and white and coloured diamonds which depicted the national flowers of the UK’s four nations. Designer Ivonna Poplanska won a national competition to create the piece.