RUSH FOR SOUVENIRS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 June 1937, Page 11

RUSH FOR SOUVENIRS

CHAIRS IN GREAT DEMAND ABBEY HANGINGS AS DRESSES (By Air Mail —From a Special Correspondent) LONDON, sth June. Mr Bernard Newman, the author, who is Office of Works "sales manager,” is receiving requests for Coronation souvenirs at the rate of 8000 a day. One London business man walked into the Supplies Room and. taking out his cheque-book, asked, “What do you want for the entire Coronation setting?” His request could not be entertained, the demand for souvenirs being so vast that supplies are strictly rationed. The new United States Ambassador to Moscow, Mr Joseph Davies, asked in vain for a complete set of Abbey chairs, and for curtain length stretches of gold thread brocate'.le. , Several hundred letters have been received from all over the country for the chairs of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, but these, with the other chairs from the Royal Gallery have been reserved for the King. It is expected that they will be sent to different palaces. Souvenirs which were in great demand were strips of the gold and the blue carpets, at £1 per square yard. The gold carpet, whose colour was reproduced from a Chinese carpet made in the ninth century, covered the theatre—on it stood the Coronation chair, the chairs of estate and the faldstools. The blue carpet covered the aisles and the annexe. In all it measures 1500 square yards. Like all the. panoply in the Abbey, the carpet remained in position while the Atlbbey was being inspected by the public, but early in June it was taken up and a portion cut to send pieces to British Embassies and Legations abroad. The rest was available to the public. All the lions which surmounted the noles in the. Mali and Hyde Park were sold in a single morning. One of them is going into the heart of Africa. It is now the property of the Yela of Barotseland, and with him and the rest of his luggage the gold and crimson lion, 3ft tall, will be paddled 500 miles up the Zambesi River. The Yeta told Mr Newman that he will have the lion lifted on a large pole and will sit under it and tell his tribe of what he saw in Westminster Abbey at the crowning of the King Emperor. Hangings used at the Coronation ceremony are being sold as material for women’s spring and summer dresses. This is one of the “freak” uses to which the thousand and one decoraions are being put to by buyers from all over the world. Golden lions as drawing-room lamp

stands, iron braziers for ornamental gardens, and rockeries from Houses of Parliament bricks —demolished for restoration purposes —are a few ingenious ways in which Mr Newman’s

many customers are making use of their purchases. A great deal of the blue and gold brocatelle, sold at 19s 6d a yard, has been bought for altar frontals.