Staff at Windsor Castle have been forced to explain their protocols after a video posted on social media prompted a backlash.
The video showed two employees turning the pages of the largest book in the royal library collection, while not wearing any gloves.
The social media post was captioned: “This is one of the biggest books in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.
“John James Audubon’s immense 4-volume 'Birds of America' was made up of 435 hand-coloured prints.
The royal collection trust has issued an explanation video after sparking backlash online
|INSTAGRAM/GETTY
“The artist insisted on having even the largest species reproduced life-size, resulting in dramatic prints on 'Double Elephant' size paper (approximately 100 x 67cm; 40 x 28 inches), one of the largest sizes of European handmade paper.”
The Instagram video prompted questions to be raised online as royal fans noticed the staff were not using gloves to touch the historic book.
One commented: “Why aren't these ladies wearing gloves to protect the paper?”
Another added: “Fascinating, but I'm surprised they are not wearing gloves touching those pages.”
A third added: “Why no gloves?! I was shocked to see them turning pages without them!”
With a fourth simply adding: “NO GLOVES???”
The Royal Collection Trust posted a video 24 hours later explaining why gloves are not used when touching the rare books
|The concerns did not go unnoticed, as 24 hours later, the team shared a follow-up video to explain why they do not use gloves.
The post read: “Why we don't wear gloves to handle books. Yesterday's reel was popular, with lots of questions about wearing gloves when handling books. So, here’s the explanation as to why our curator isn’t wearing gloves.
The curator then spoke to camera, revealing: “The best practice is to have clean dry hands with no hand cream and no nail varnish… with your bare hands you can turn the pages really carefully.”
LATEST ROYAL NEWS
The royal library inside Windsor Castle is home to over 45,000 rare books and manuscripts, and it takes up three rooms within the castle.
The library is not open to the public, so posts on social media always generate a lot of excitement among royal fans getting a glimpse of some of the books held within.
The King has not made any changes to the library since ascending to the throne, but he has made a number of changes around Windsor Castle.
King Charles has installed solar panels and electric vehicle charging point at Windsor Castle in aims to be net zero in the future
|GETTY
Solar panels have been installed on the roof to help reach net zero in the future, and electric car charging ports have been installed.
Thousands of saplings have also been planted across the estate, encouraging more wildlife to the area.
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter