Barbara is a right royal addict
Barbara Larsen has more than 15,000 books and 300 scrapbooks about royalty – all royalty, not just the British lot.
And she has magazine articles, jigsaw puzzles of the royal family from the 1930s, paper dolls, movies, dolls, spoons, crockery . . . if it has anything to do with royalty, Larsen, 80, has it.
Her collection started when she cut out some pictures of then little princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, when she was 4 and it grew from there.
The most expensive book she has is on Diana’s dresses, which cost her $600, she says.
‘‘I’ve got heaps of spoons and crockery, but I don’t collect it because there would have been a divorce in the family. But I’ve got a lot that the kids have given me.’’
Husband Bruce, who died four years ago, used to enjoy her hobby, she says,
‘‘He used it as an excuse to visit secondhand shops. All the secondhand shops in New Zealand know me.
‘‘I’ve got a lot of books, but if I get one I haven’t got it’s all excitement.
‘‘I’ve got books back to Queen Victoria’s daughter’s wedding. And they weren’t photography, they were plates. I would have paid one and six [15 cents] for that. Imagine what they would be worth now?’’
She doesn’t know what her whole collection is worth, but she guesses hundreds of thousands of dollars.
‘‘I had the insurance guy come, but the premiums were so high. I said do it for $20,000 and if it burns I’ll have a good holiday on it and forget it. Nobody is going to break in for some pictures of the Queen.’’
Her books, scrapbooks and files are on shelves in the garage and in the library in her New Plymouth home.
‘‘We’ve had five houses in this street and they’ve all had a library in them. And every time we moved the neighbours would say: ‘oh Bruce has to move again, the library’s full’.’’
While in England to go to the Queen’s garden party – no she didn’t get to meet her – Larsen went to the little shop at Windsor Castle looking for a particular book.
‘‘There was a little old Indian guy and he took my name and three months later a huge bag of royal mail came. The postage was 150 pounds. There was everything from badges, cigarette cards, books, you name it, flags.’’
She paid him the postage, but he wouldn’t take anything else. And he’s still sending her things. As do people in New Plymouth, who often drop stuff in her letterbox.
But though the internet would be a mine of information on collectables she doesn’t have a computer.
‘‘The kids say it’s just as well or I’d have no money left. I’d be flat broke.’’
Larsen doesn’t have a favourite royal and isn’t, contrary to what you might expect, an ardent monarchist.
‘‘I’d be horrified if one of my kids married one. I’d hate it. I don’t think they’re any flasher than we are. It’s just an interest that’s got out of control a wee bit.’’
She’s likes the European royals because they live like normal people, she says.
‘‘They have their pomp, but they work. That’s what Charles needs to do. They can’t just sit there sponging off everybody like [princessess] Beatrice and Eugenie. They should be out working.’’ – Fairfax NZ