A piece of the queen: New souvenirs mark monarch’s death

Advertisement

Advertise with us

LONDON (AP) — There are fridge magnets, tea sets and flags. And of course mugs, T-shirts and sweatshirts with the face of Queen Elizabeth II that are inscribed with the dates of her 70-year reign: 1952-2022.

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/09/2022 (1507 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON (AP) — There are fridge magnets, tea sets and flags. And of course mugs, T-shirts and sweatshirts with the face of Queen Elizabeth II that are inscribed with the dates of her 70-year reign: 1952-2022.

Just days after the death of Britain’s longest-serving monarch, unofficial souvenirs have rolled out at royal-themed gift shops in London and online marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy.

Cool Britannia, a shop selling U.K.-themed memorabilia across the street from Buckingham Palace, pushed its suppliers to work overnight to get mementos ready by Saturday, just two days after the queen’s death, store manager Ismayil Ibrahim said. Items depicting the new monarch, King Charles III, were also on their way to Ibrahim’s shop, where tourists were buying other royal gifts like queen bobbleheads and rubber ducks wearing crowns.

Toy figures of Queen Elizabeth II are displayed for sale at a gift shop in London, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Just days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, unofficial souvenirs have rolled out at royal-themed gift shops in London and online marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Toy figures of Queen Elizabeth II are displayed for sale at a gift shop in London, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Just days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, unofficial souvenirs have rolled out at royal-themed gift shops in London and online marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Official merchandise, however, will take longer to arrive to approved vendors, who have suspended sales of royal souvenirs out of respect for the mourning period.

Based on strong customer demand for gifts for the queen’s recent Platinum Jubilee celebrating her seven decades on the throne, Ibrahim anticipates even greater interest in souvenirs commemorating her life and death.

“People kept asking us, ‘Have you got anything yet?’ Ibrahim said.

So he quickly stocked T-shirts and mugs saying, “Forever in our Hearts” and “Gone but not forgotten,” bearing a portrait of the queen as a young woman. Another version carried portraits of the queen both young and old with the words: “Queen Elizabeth II — The Greatest Reign 1952-2022.”

There was a constant stream of tourists browsing at the shop Monday, and two others nearby, though not many were buying the items commemorating her reign.

Lorenzo Corbani, an Italian living in Bath, England, bought a solar-powered bobblehead figure of the queen for his mother, who was a big fan.

“She felt she was a great woman,” said Corbani, 35.

Unofficial gifts have spread quickly online, too. Sellers on eBay are already hawking King Charles III souvenir mugs, badges, fridge magnets, and key rings that say “God Save The King.” Amazon vendors are flogging similarly tacky and hastily churned out royal merchandise like Union Jack flags adorned with Charles’ portrait and decals and posters commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s life. There’s even a pet bandana with the dates of her reign.

At Majestic Gifts near Buckingham Palace, Paul Callaghan splurged on a tin of Platinum Jubilee English breakfast tea bearing the queen’s picture for 15 pounds ($17.50), which he said was a one-off purchase.

“It’s not cheap, but it’s limited. It’s never going to happen again,” said Callaghan, 35, who works in financial services and was visiting London from Dublin.

Now that the queen has died, he decided to buy a memento “before all the stocks run out.”

“Because, again, it’s quite a historic thing. You’re never going to see a queen live until this long or reign this long,” Callaghan said. “And not only that, but we’re probably not going to have another queen for another century.”

There’s likely to be big demand for King Charles III souvenirs, and vendors of unofficial royal merchandise like Ibrahim are poised to capitalize on it, raising questions over copyright. But it’s unlikely that the royal family will take legal action, according to a lawyer specializing in trademark law.

“Given the fascination with the monarchy it would be a full-time job to stop unlicensed merchandise,” said Charlotte Wilding, a partner at the firm Wedlake Bell.

“I suspect the Royal Family takes the view that it would rather not punish the general public for its ‘support,’ even if that support may not be in the correct form,” Wilding said by email. “Bad press is just not something the Royal Family want to be a part of or risk being a part of, even if they are legally in the right.”

In the meantime, official vendors of royal gifts are observing a 10-day mourning period. One of them, the Royal Collection Trust, which manages public access to the queen’s residences, said on its website that its shops have closed in London, Windsor and Edinburgh and online sales of items like Buckingham Palace magnets have been suspended.

With no official items to snag, Judy Kline, a 74-year-old tourist from suburban Detroit, spent 32 pounds on souvenirs at a tourist shop at London’s famed Piccadilly Circus, including several ornate blue and white fridge magnets with the queen’s portrait.

“I have some friends who are very envious that they’re not on this trip with us. I wanted to give them a little token,” Kline said.

Kline said she felt a certain affinity with the royals and wanted to buy King Charles III memorabilia but would be departing before any arrived at souvenir shops and stalls.

“The prince — I mean the king — is a year younger than I am. So I saw him as a little kid, and he was like my peer, you know?” Kline said. “And then their grandkids are just a little bit younger than our grandkids.”

___

Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed from London.

___

Follow all AP stories on Britain’s royal family at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Meteorologist behind Rob’s Obs is moving weather station to Ontario

Ben Waldman 7 minute read Preview

Meteorologist behind Rob’s Obs is moving weather station to Ontario

Ben Waldman 7 minute read Monday, Jun. 13, 2022

In a Winnipeg winter, there are always at least two certainties: it will be cold, and it will snow. A third certainty: the people will talk endlessly about how frigid the temperature is, and argue about how much snow is cloaking their driveways. Is it colder than it ever has been? Is there more snow today than the same time last year?

Rob Paola likely knows the answers to those questions.

Paola possesses no super powers. He is but a man with a metre stick and 40 years of professional meteorological experience, in the midst of a lifelong love affair with Mother Nature, a most turbulent mistress who rarely, if ever, reciprocates.

Each year when snow begins to fall, Paola heads outside his Charleswood home to figure out how much. He sticks his ruler in the ground, grabs his clipboard, and clicks his pen. In neat script, he records the temperature, what time precipitation began, how deep the powder is stacked. Then, he shares his data and insights online with thousands of followers who want a clear answer to the eternal questions: Why is this happening? When will it stop? How much snow has fallen in the city of Winnipeg?

Read
Monday, Jun. 13, 2022

Winnipeg Comiccon to feature Terminator 2 villain, Stargate cast

Conrad Sweatman 6 minute read Preview

Winnipeg Comiccon to feature Terminator 2 villain, Stargate cast

Conrad Sweatman 6 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

You gotta ask the question.

In Robert Patrick’s five-decade career, the 67-year-old actor — who’s in town for this weekend’s Winnipeg Comiccon — has played a gambling addict (The Sopranos), a racist (Peacemaker), a terrorist (Die Hard 2), a bereaved father (The X Files) and dozens of other memorable American TV and film parts.

Sometimes weak, though more often, bold and intimidating characters — but, in any case, real men, with emotional ranges well beyond the robot he’s most famous for playing, namely Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s T-1000, a visual paradox of blob and blades whose only mission is to kill a teenage John Connor.

Still, the people want to know: what does Hollywood’s most iconic machine villain make of today’s AI boom?

Read
2:01 AM CDT

Fact Check

1 minute read Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023

Fact Check

Having problems with the form?Contact Us Directly |

City rec facilities crumbling

Ryan Thorpe 6 minute read Preview

City rec facilities crumbling

Ryan Thorpe 6 minute read Monday, Oct. 22, 2018

Throughout Winnipeg, decades-old community assets — pools, arenas and recreation and leisure centres — are deteriorating so quickly that service disruptions are inevitable.

Meanwhile, the city’s community services department, which is responsible for managing those assets, operates with an annual deficit of roughly $80 million, meaning there are scant resources to do little more than bail water on a sinking ship.

Soon, Winnipeggers will have a choice: fewer community services or higher costs.

“It poses a huge challenge because we have very limited dollars that we have to invest in our existing facilities. We also have growing demands for new amenities in new areas. We have to be very strategic,” said Ken McKim, manager of asset management for the department.

Read
Monday, Oct. 22, 2018

Longtime councillor Eadie ‘knew it was going to be close,’ but expected to finish on top in Mynarski

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Preview

Longtime councillor Eadie ‘knew it was going to be close,’ but expected to finish on top in Mynarski

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Updated: 1:56 PM CDT

After 16 years representing Winnipeg’s North End at city hall, Ross Eadie knew his latest re-election bid would be close. What he didn’t anticipate was losing in the very neighbourhoods where he grew up.

The longtime Mynarski councillor, defeated Wednesday by political newcomer Natalie Smith, said Thursday the result was particularly difficult to accept because some of his strongest losses came in Luxton, St. John’s Park and surrounding neighbourhoods.

“I knew it was going to be close,” Eadie said. “But I thought it was going to be close with me in first place.”

“I really lost it where I live. So that’s the worst part of it.”

Read
Updated: 1:56 PM CDT

Multi-year budget to force councillors, bureaucrats to focus on the big picture

Aldo Santin 12 minute read Preview

Multi-year budget to force councillors, bureaucrats to focus on the big picture

Aldo Santin 12 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019

City hall is putting the final touches on the 2019 preliminary budget -- but the real tough job will start after that.

The city is committed to developing a four-year budget beginning with 2020, and having it in place by the end of this year.

It's a process that is filled with uncertainties, trying to balance four successive annual budgets at the same time, using assumptions on revenues and expenses that can change without notice: a provincial government that has frozen funding to city hall at 2016 levels and is reluctant to disclose annual funding commitments or share in unexpected revenues; erratic fuel prices; a possible change in government in Ottawa, which could bring new spending priorities. And in the middle of that four-year span, another civic election where new members of council may have other priorities than those laid out by the current crop of office holders.

Municipal governments across Manitoba are required to approve their annual operating and capital budgets by the end of March each year. But the criticism of decision-making at city hall has been that all the decisions are made on a year-to-year basis, keeping voters happy with an eye on the next election.

Read
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019