Looking back at Corgi's range of Royal carriages

Now that we are in the midst of the celebrations of the royal wedding of the Queen’s grandson, Prince William to Catherine Middleton on 29th April 2011, it is perhaps timely to look back at just one of the ways model collectors have marked royal occasions over recent years and the relevant models produced.

Way back in 1977, while holidaying with my parents in Norfolk, I first noticed a rather distinctive souvenir of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year in WH Smith’s window in King’s Lynn. The object of my interest was, in fact, a rather smart horse-drawn carriage complete with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, four Windsor Grey carriage horses, two postillion riders, two footmen and even a royal corgi dog following on behind.

Being, I suppose, a bit of a Corgi fan, I pestered and persuaded my parents to buy one instead of something more traditional like the usual mug memorabilia that was in all of the shops at that time. As the model came pre-assembled and fixed down onto a grey plastic plinth, it was well suited for display rather than play and soon found itself plonked on top of the television for the rest of that year.

After that the model was almost forgotten and I don’t think it saw the light of day for many years as it was packed away somewhere with other old ornaments in a cupboard. It wasn’t until I noticed that Corgi was making a similar presentation set to mark the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday in 2000 that I looked it out and decided to buy the new one to keep it company.

This version of the same basic carriage was better presented than the earlier one with four separate types of cast horses instead of the two types of original plastic ones and a much smarter wooden plinth to show off the whole ensemble.

*This is an excerpt of the article 'Royal Corgis...' first published in Diecast Collector's May issue. To see which issues of Diecast Collector are available to buy online, click here

*Diecast Collector is a monthly magazine which focuses on all types of diecast models from Dinky Toys to Oxford Diecast