Queen Alexandra and her "bewildering lots of things"

Queen Alexandra had a penchant for collecting stuff and her London residence, Marlborough House, and country retreat, Sandringham, became cluttered with trinkets and knickknacks acquired through the years. An interesting account about Queen Alexandra's hoards is recounted by Queen Mary's biographer, James Pope-Hennessy: 

The tenancy of Queen Alexandra at the Big House [Sandringham] had lasted longer than King Edward had imagined that it would. The fact that the Queen Dowager, with her daughter Princess Victoria and a small suite, occupied only a few of the rooms of the house, leaving the rest to decay, had been a long standing source of secret grievance to the inhabitants of York cottage. Queen Alexandra's death in November 1925 meant that York Cottage could at long last be vacated and that the King and Queen of England with their family and the Court could take up their residence in a country-house of reasonable size. In January 1926 the King and Queen began to take stock of the contents of the Big House: "Such a bewildering lot of things & pictures," Queen Mary noted. They retrieved those Crown Jewels which Queen Alexandra had retained for her own use, as well as dividing her personal jewellery amongst the members of the family. "Fine," Queen Mary noted for Saturday, 9 January. "At 11 to S. where Toria & Maud with G. & me divided dear Mama's jewels — it was interesting but sad."

On the return of the Court to London, Queen Mary turned her attention to Marlborough House, which had of course also fallen vacant with Queen Alexandra's death. "My time," she wrote in February 1926, "is kept fairly occupied looking over the things from Marl. Hse & helping George to place them in suitable positions. You never saw such a mass of things of all kinds as there are, a motley collection of good and bad things - A warning to one not to keep too much for nothing was ever thrown away in those 60 years!"

Going through the accumulations at Marlborough House - discovering a Berlin tea-service, wedding out the less valuable kind, sorting and arranging - formed for Queen Mary an ideal pastime.... 

Source: Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy, 1959.