Britain has wedding fever

Press, 22 July 1986, Page 41

Britain has wedding fever

By CHARLES MILLER of NZPA in London

The Royal wedding is giving Britain an injection of hundreds of millions of dollars.

But it is on a much smaller scale than the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales five years ago when the country was gripped by Royal fever and razzmataz.

This time many high street stores are stocking just quality souvenirs, while some have decided to ignore the souvenir trade.

A spokesman for Woolworth’s said: “We decided it would not be worth our selling souvenirs as it is not a public holiday and thus there will not be so many street parties with people buying lots of things. “There just has not been the same build-up as we had with the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.” At Debenham’s, where specially produced Wedgewood articles are rapidly selling out, other goods such as a jigsaw of the Royal couple are “moving slowly.” The ■ Englsh Tourist Board is confident that the long-term spin-offs of the wedding will earn Britain hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The wedding will put <.the world’s spotlight on "Britain again and’we shall

have a fantastic opportunity to highlight all our pageantry and heritage,” said a spokesman. “We will receive publicity worth millions of pounds as there are about 1,000 overseas pressmen covering the event — some 400 from America alone — and they will be looking at other things while over here,” he said. Tourist chiefs are particularly delighted that United States First Lady, Mrs Nancy Reagan, will attend the wedding, thus proving to the American public that the terrorist threat has diminished.

“People will be able to see for themselves on television that the streets are not full of armed guards and that life is fine with people on the streets enjoying themselves” said the tourist board. Manufacturers have had only since the engagement in March to prepare their build-up of souvenirs, but their response was quick. Already millions of stamp collectors are sharing world interest in the wedding. More than 40 countries and territories from Antigua and Grenada to Uganda, St Helena and the Falklands are producing special souvenir issues.

Some are producing two stamps, others three or four, with souvenir ipheets and plans to follow them

up with new issues showing the wedding. The stamps generaly portray the Royal couple from their early years, on formal, and informal occasions, such as Ascot, as well as showing the Prince in a naval role.

Mr Richard Garbett, of the stamp dealers, Stanley Gibbons, said: “It will be a popular collection. It is offered at a sensible, realistic price and it is good collectable material.” The British issue comprises just a modest two values — 12 pence and 17 pence — and shows an informal photograph of Prince Andrew in opennecked shirt and Sarah Ferguson, hair loose, displaying her ruby engagement ring. The 17p stamp features the Prince’s insignia as a Royal Navy lieutenant while on the 12p version there is a complementary design with two wedding bells. Both the stamps will go on sale in Britain on July 22, the day before the wedding. Mr Garbett would not be drawn on the investment potential of the stamps but Stanley Gibbons is selling British Commonwealth stamps, all in complete sets, from 37 different countries for £89.95 (about $257). If the market stays true to form, their value will steadily increase. A complete set of the 1948 silver wedding issues, for ex-

ample is now catalogued at £1,600 ($4,576).

The Commemorative Collectors’ Society, which catalogues souvenirs for big national events, has discovered 350 items produced specially for the Royal wedding. But the society said that many of the items use identical transfers produced for the ceramic industry in Stoke-on-Trent and so it lists just 100 souvenirs.

They range from a 25p (71 cent) lapel badge, and children’s lollipops, through to a silver “jolly boat” bearing the Prince’s coat of arms and containing two crystal decanters from Garrards, the Royal jewellers, at £3,850 ($11,011). The society’s secretary, Mr Steven Jackson, of Long Eaton, near Nottingham, said the souvenirs were predictable with nothing unusual among the endless mugs, postcards, ties and glassware.

Much less is being produced than for Prince Charles’s wedding in 1981, when some estimated there were 1600 souvenirs.

“When Prince Charles got married everyone knew he would be the future king, that his children would be future monarchs and that there had not been a wedding ofja Prince of Wales since 1883. It had all the histori-

cal and emotional ingredients,” said Mr Jackson.

“For this wedding there are simply not the same connotations and thus there is no comparison. But it is not a flop, not by a long way,” he said.

Manufacturers had learned the hard way about how to gauge the souvenir market.

“They badly misjudged souvenir interest in the Pope’s visit in 1982 and some 14 companies went bust

“We have not seen anything that could be labelled a rip-off. The souvenirs seem to be value for money,” he said It is also thought that there will be a fast-mov-ing post-wedding market with many new souvenirs carrying photographs of the wedding.

The future value of the souvenirs is uncertain. Experts believe that as usual, it will be the quality souvenirs rather than the cheap trivia which will appreciate in value. The Royal Mint is producing a £25 ($7l) sterling silver medal with a portrait of Prince Andrew and Miss Sarah Ferguson on one side and the rose window of Westminster Abbey on the other.

The Mint will issue 20,000 of the 37 gram hallmarked medals, and as usual they will be offered first to specialist coin clubs. ”