Royal Watch: William and Kate’s Tour of North America

As an avid Anglophile, I’ve kept a keen eye on the tour of North America by royal newlyweds William and Kate. On their first official international tour June 30 through July 10, HRH the Duke of Cambridge and HRH the Duchess of Cambridge (aka William and Kate) stylishly traversed North America at a whirlwind pace. Touching down in Ottawa, they toured Montreal, Prince Edward Island, Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and Calgary before heading south to California. To view their Canadian itinerary go to the 2011 Royal Tour of Canada by the Duke and Duchess Cambridge.

On July 9 William was victorious in a charity polo match in Santa Barbara, before the couple turned heads that evening at their first red carpet Hollywood event, a gala at the Belasco Theater celebrating rising UK film actors in support of the British Academy for Film and Television Arts. With Kate again wearing a gown by the house of Alexander McQueen, the royal couple mixed with Hollywood stars including Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Nicole Kidman.

In addition to tracking the charities, organizations and sites visited by William and Kate, part of the fun for royal-watchers was answering the proverbial question, What is Kate wearing? From favorite designers like Erdem and McQueen to DVF, Smythe and Ted Baker, with Nike and J Brand thrown in, Kate has taken on the role of a new royal with her own sense of style, often mixing and matching from her existing wardrobe (a three-year-old trenchcoat was brought back out of the closet.) You can follow Kate’s sartorial splendor at two engaging blogs: What Kate Wore, and Kate Middleton Style.

Following the exuberance of William and Kate’s royal wedding April 29, the latest royal tour got us thinking, what about souvenirs and commemorative memorabilia to mark the occasions? British monarchy collectibles are nothing new. Potters and artisans have produced wares for the public to hail royal events such as coronations and weddings since the restoration of Charles II in 1660. Three years later, when the king married Catherine of Braganza, collectibles in glass, majolica and pewter were produced to celebrate the match. By the age of Queen Victoria and the manufacture of affordable, transportable china, Brits began collecting decorative plates, mugs, pillboxes and figurines on a widespread scale.

The Victoria & Albert Museum has collected royal wares from over the centuries, displaying everything from a silver-gilt cup honoring the coronation of James II in 1685 to a Fenton plate marking Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887 and even a Staffordshire mug marking the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

To mark William and Kate’s tour after the pomp and circumstance of their spring wedding, which an estimated 22.7 million Americans rose early to watch live on television or web-streaming, UK retailer of prestige collectibles Compton and Woodhouse decided to bring its collection of royal commemorative wares to this continent for the first time. Launched in June, www.comptonandwoodhouse-us.com has issued commemorative china plates marking both the wedding and the Canadian tour, with photo images of the royal couple surrounded by gold filigree. (Curiously, the Canadian tour plate apparently features a depiction of the couple the morning after their wedding; production deadlines prevented waiting for a portrait from the actual tour, we assume.)

Compton and Woodhouse
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Compton and Woodhouse US

Complementing its long association with British purveyors of fine china and glassware such as Spode, Waterford and Coalport, Compton and Woodhouse also is offering subtler William and Kate items such as Wedgwood Royal Wedding China and the Dartington crystal royal wedding bowl.

Wedgwood Royal Wedding China Plate

Dartington Bowl

The British Monarchy’s own official royal wedding commemorative line has been approved by the Duke and Duchess and includes a tankard, eight-inch plate and pill box in English fine bone china. Each piece bears the couple’s entwined initials in gold and silver surmounted by the coronet of Prince William and the wedding date. The pieces are handmade exclusively for the Royal Collection in Stoke-on-Trent using methods that have remained unchanged for 250 years. Each item is individually decorated and then embellished with several layers of burnished gold and platinum before a final layer of gilding in 22-carat gold is applied by hand. The official Royal Wedding commemorative range can be purchased from the Royal Collection’s online shop.

One of the more unusual collectible offerings, again from Compton and Woodhouse, is a 10-inch figurine of Kate in her McQueen wedding dress by noted British sculptor Carolyn Morton (renowned for her life-size bronze bust of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Makthoum, Ruler of Dubai and Vice-President of the United Arab Emirates.) Available for shipment in September in a limited edition of 5,000, the figurine features hand-applied detailing approximating the intricate lacework of the headline-making dress and bone china flowers in the bouquet made by the famed artisans of Stoke-on-Trent. Fifty artisans were involved in the production of each figurine. Kate, the future queen, joins a line of Compton and Woodhouse Royal Bride figurines including likenesses of Queen Victoria and Diana, Princess of Wales. May this latest royal fairytale continue apace.

Sculptor Carolyn Morton creating the Duchess of Cambridge bridal figurine.

By William Weathersby


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