Wedded bliss
Marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has produced some unusual memorabilia, finds Jane Bradley
Tucked away in a cabinet in the Brooklyn Museum in New York is one of the most bizarre pieces of royal wedding memorabilia around.
The tiny item is kept wrapped, out of sight, in a yellowed square of paper and displayed in a small silver-plated glass receptacle. It has not been exposed to the air for nearly 180 years.
Remarkably, curators at the museum believe that the curiosity, a small square of Queen Victoria’s wedding cake, is still intact, currants and all. Although the cake is not likely to ever be sold, it could be worth tens of thousands of pounds, if the sale, 20 years ago, of a slice of the cake from Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson’s wedding is anything to go by. A bit of mouldy cake for £21,000? Collectors are strange beings. But when a royal wedding is looming, they come out to play in droves. With just a week to go until the marriage of Prince Harry and US actress Meghan Markle, we are, now – possibly, hopefully – experiencing peak wedding commercialisation. From condoms to crisps, beer to card games and sausages, there is nothing which cannot become commemorative, it seems.
The creators of the Crown Jewels Heritage Condoms – apparently “the world’s pre-eminent supplier of souvenir-grade heirloom prophylactics” – claim the contraceptives are “fit for a prince”. The only flaw is that they have not been licensed for “medical” use and the makers bizarrely advise that they should be kept for “generations to come” rather than used to actually prevent pregnancies or STIS. However, the £10 rubber johnnies do come in a box which plays an “exclusive” arrangement of God Save the Queen and The Star Spangled Banner. Pure class.
Even posh crisp brand Tyrrels is getting in on the act, with their “Ginger & Sparkle” parsnip crisps, which have edible glitter “for a celebratory feel”, while publisher Orion has commissioned someone to create a colouring book of – wait for it