Elephants and cowboy boots: 9 utterly bizarre gifts given to The Queen by state officials

The age-old custom of foreign dignitaries passing on tokens of goodwill goes back to the dawn of civilisation, though often these gifts can express ulterior motives.

In 757 AD for example, the emperor of Byzantium, Constantine V, gave the King of Francia, Pipin the Short, a mechanical organ, which boasted the superiority of Byzantine technology.

Nowadays, though, gifts are given with the simple intention of extending diplomatic relations, often by parting with a symbol of the ambassador's country of origin. But that doesn't meet that blunders aren't sometimes made.

In 2009, Barack Obama famously bestowed Gordon Brown with 25 DVDs of US classics, only to find they were incompatible with British players.

The Queen of the United Kingdom is officially the world's longest reigning monarch alive. As leader of the Commonwealth, the Queen has been head of 32 independent countries (though that number has now halved) over her 64-year reign. She is the most well-travelled monarch in history, with over 263 official foreign visits under her belt.

Official gifts are much like the Queen's official properties - they may be used but they are not personal property. Gifts can be eaten if consumable and if valued below £150 they can be donated to staff or charities but otherwise, they will eventually be amalgamated into the Royal Collection.

Regardless of whether or not she can peddle them on eBay, the Queen gets a lot of gifts. Not the kind of thing you'd be expecting in your stocking this month, though. These are some of the most wholeheartedly bizarre she has ever received, in order of least to most recent: