Britain Keeps Quiet About Royal Keepsakes
One in five Brits will buy a Wills and Kate wedding souvenir - but seven in ten won’t admit it to friends, it emerged this week.
Researchers found fear of embarrassment, it being seen as ‘tacky’ and a waste of money will mean thousands will keep quiet about what they buy to commemorate the Royal occasion.
A third said it would be out of character if they splashed out on lavish items, while one in ten said they don’t want people thinking they clutter up their houses.
It also emerged the nation will fork out more than £230 million on Royal collectibles, with mugs, tea-towels and plates the most popular items to be bought.
Yesterday (Sun), a spokesman for Bid TV which commissioned the research amongst 2,000 Brits, said: "Our survey shows a large percentage of the nation is caught up in the excitement of the Royal Wedding later this month.
"But while millions plan to fork out and buy souvenirs to mark this special occasion, it seems they aren’t so keen to admit it to friends and family.
"When you hear the word ‘souvenir’ the thought of tacky items, cluttering up shelves and collecting dusts in British homes spring to mind.
"And this might be enough to dissuade Brits from letting on to their pals about their purchases.
"But a cleverly thought-out item could fetch a fair few pounds in years to come, so they shouldn’t be shunned - they just need to be chosen with care."
The survey quizzed the nation on the Royal wedding and their souvenir collecting habits. It was carried out to mark the launch of bid tv’s search for Britain’s ‘Best of British’ collector on www.bidtvcollectibles.co.uk/bestofbritish
It found 35 per cent will watch this month’s Royal wedding - which is twenty per cent down on the number who tuned into Charles and Diana’s great day in 1981.
One in ten will head to the pub with mates and a quarter will dip in and out of TV coverage.
Four in ten said the Royal Wedding this month makes them feel ‘proud to be British’, and a quarter went as far as to say it made them feel more romantic.
But many weren’t so enthusiastic - one in ten feel the wedding is a waste of money, 13 per cent it was a ‘lot of fuss about nothing’ and three in ten said they ‘didn’t care either way’.
Three in ten said they were going to treat it as a normal Bank Holiday and look forward to the time off work.
Only one per cent of people questioned said they planned to go to London to join in the celebrations
Fewer than one in twenty said they would be having a street party - compared to almost one in ten twenty years ago.
In 1981 a third bought a commemorative Royal wedding souvenir compared to just one in five this time round.
Eight in ten Brits said they won’t bother with souvenirs - one in six reckons they’re too expensive or that they’ll end up in the bin and one in twenty said the marriage ‘probably won’t even last’.
TV antique expert and owner of the UK’s largest auction house, Tom Keane, believes the research clearly illustrates a key characteristic of the British psyche: "Britain was once known as a nation of shopkeepers but this research shows that collecting is deeply ingrained into a vast percentage of the population with half of those questioned saying that they were avid collectors of everything from china figurines, plates, stamps, Royal memorabilia, paintings, books, cuddly toys through to milk bottle tops.
"And it is obviously something that has been happening in Britain for years - you only have to visit one of my auctions to see items that were once collected for a couple of quid sell for hundreds a few decades later."
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