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This was the year that London-born Jonathan Ive made the journey from the butcher-block desks and cast-aluminum task chairs of his studio in Cupertino, California, to the audience chamber of Buckingham Palace so that Queen Elizabeth II could knight him. You could call it a case of stable doors and bolted horses. Britain was recognizing one of its most successful designers more than a decade after he left the country to help make Apple the United States' most valuable company.