THE brand of 2011 has to be “Wills & Kate“ but if you are planning on scooping up all manner of branded merchandise, don’t be fooled into thinking it will make you a fortune.  As Chinese factory workers recover from the long nights of royal memorabilia production, post Royal Wedding most of it will be rendered worthless.

Take a quick trawl on eBay and you can quickly see that a Charles and Diana celebratory mug from 1981 is listed at the paltry value of 99 pence.  To add insult, there are no bids listed either!

For the discerning royal merchandise collector, they’ll tell you that going back a bit further in time to 1947 for instance, commemorative tableware for the Queen and Prince Phillips’ wedding have more value mainly due to the fact that production levels were low and local factories (eg Stoke) was where all the hard work was done so it had the additional interest of home-grown production.

That said, a royal wedding really does establish a brand as well as a feeling of national unity.  You can often see examples of the famous Charles and Diana brand in TV programmes and film sets from the early 80’s making the pieces relevant of a date and time.  William and Kate have actually managed to make royal branded merchandise cool again so it might be a good idea to hang on to those Wills & Kate cushions, mugs, napkins, flags and hats.  You never know how much they might be worth to the producers of period drama’s in 30 years’ time!

To celebrate - we’re giving away a bottle of champagne to the sender of the worst piece of wedding memorabilia photography – send yours to ssharp@miliberty.com