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Thursday, March 13, 2008

And all the Queen's glasses

When the queen came to New Zealand in 1953, my great granddad was the mayor of Picton - Or was it Blenheim? Help please Auntie Karen! - and he had the great pleasure of doing a walk-about with her. She, in return, gave him a set of glasses:
 

 
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This isn't the set that belonged to my great granddad (they're somewhere else in the family), but these are a very close second. Never been used, in the original box with even the original tissue and purchased for the princely sum of $10 at the Thorndon fair a few years ago.

My nana has the hat that my great grandma wore on the day she met the queen. From the number of times I've heard about that day, I can tell it was one of my great grandma's proudest moments ever.

2 comments:

Lidian said...

That is fabulous that you found another set - what a great family story! What did the hat look like? Did it have one of those little veils on it, like the ones my mother used to wear (and I played dress-up with, and then lost, not knowing I would be into vintage stuff later in life, sigh).

Riverlands Room 2 said...

I actually think mum thinks its a big joke especially about the hat. Nans brother got it for her in Australia (which was a very distant destination in those days). It was lilac with silk flowers. She must have had a small head because we used it for dress ups, in fact I may have seen a photo with you wearing it!!Aunty Rosemary would be horrified!!! I think Dad may have the glasses and we certainly have some lovely photos.(way before my time of course) By the way he was mayor of Picton.