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RICHARD EDEN: Why Princess Margaret's grandson Sam Chatto, 27, was the only young royal invited to the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace

Though both Anne and the Princess of Wales were absent, Princess Margaret's grandson Sam Chatto was among guests at a State Banquet honouring the Japanese Emperor and Emperess.

I can disclose that it managed to rustle up a very fitting newcomer for Tuesday night's State Banquet, held in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace in honour of Emperor Naruhito and Emperess Masako of Japan. Some of his porcelain forms part of a current exhibition in Somerset, mounted by Hauser & Wirth, the Swiss art gallery of which Sam's second cousin, Princess Eugenie, is an associate director. There was no tea – only Scottish langoustines, Cornish turbot and Bombe Glacé Melba, all eased down with English sparkling wine from Coates and Seely in Hampshire, a New Zealand chardonnay, and, from France, a claret and a splash of Laurent Perrier champagne.

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