All the Queen's presents, from tin trucks to an oasis of gold

Some are gaudy, many are impressively ostentatious and a number are endearingly home-made. Hundreds of gifts, souvenirs and trinkets bestowed on the Queen during 50 years of state visits and commonwealth tours go on display at Buckingham Palace on Monday.

The items are not what most of us take home for the mantlepiece at the end of our annual holidays and this exhibition may be the first use Her Majesty has found for many of them.

Jonathan Marsden, the deputy surveyor of the Queen's works of art, admitted yesterday that many had spent decades in storage.

For what does one do with a model of an oasis fashioned from pure gold? Would the Queen really ever consider serving drinks from the giant steel, brass and Sèvres porcelain wine-bottle cooler in the shape of a giant grasshopper, the gift of French President Georges Pompidou in 1972.

The extraordinary display of state gifts is a new addition when Buckingham Palace opens to the public for two months from Monday, while the Windsors are away on holiday.

More than 200 items received during the 76 state visits and 149 commonwealth country tours the Queen has made are being shown in the grand Ball Supper Room, which has itself not been fully open to the public before this summer.

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia gave a couple of gold bowls in the Fifties, Nelson Mandela a silk scarf in 1995 and the Pope a copy of the New Testament last year. Salvador Dali handed over a drawing during a visit to France 30 years ago which hangs in the Duke of Edinburgh's rooms at Windsor.

But not all of the presents or the present-givers are so grand. For every enormous vase or imposing model of a Japanese temple, there are the more intriguing presents of ordinary people. There is a hand-made didgeridoo from Australia and a carefully crafted model boat from the Solomon Islands.

And there is an intriguing insight into how the rest of the world sees the Queen. She is variably depicted in ivory by a carver in Zambia, in paint on the side of a recycled tin model truck from workers in Pakistan and, most dramatically, as a Papua New Guinea chieftain.

Mr Marsden said: "I think people will come away from the exhibition being reminded that not only is the Queen the most widely-travelled monarch in history, but that she is well-liked by people. There are incredibly touching presents, particularly from the Commonwealth countries."

The Queen was always so tactful you never knew what she really thought of the gifts, he added.

Yet many of the most idiosyncratic presents remain excluded from the exhibition by force of circumstances. Pineapples, 30 eggs, 7kg of prawns and a box of snail shells have long since been cooked by the royal staff. And the Palace points out that one royal tradition that has continued, but cannot be represented, is the giving of live animals.

A cheetah was sent from India to George III in 1764 and George IV got a giraffe from the Pasha of Egypt in 1827. The Queen has received numerous horses, and assorted other livestock went to London Zoo. Germany gave a canary, Brazil gave jaguars and sloths, Canada proffered black beavers and the Seychelles two young giant turtles. The Cameroon provided an elephant, and the infant Prince Andrew was given a baby crocodile by the people of Berending in the Gambia in 1961.

The state rooms of Buckingham Palace will be open from Monday until 29 September. Adult tickets are £11.50, over-60s £9.50, under-17s £6 and family tickets of two adults and two under-17s for £29. Under-fives go free.

The money raised from admission to Buckingham Palace go towards the conservation and display of the royal collection.