Owner of Australia's largest collection of Royal Family memorabilia ready to expand amassment

Record ID: 1689013

  • Title: Owner of Australia's largest collection of Royal Family memorabilia ready to expand amassment
  • Date: 16th September 2022
  • Summary: HUGO WALKING THROUGH LIVING ROOM FILLED WITH ROYAL MEMORABILIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "Oh look she was just a genuine person. She was, you know, she was kind, she just served her people and she did it for over 70 years and right up until the day before she passed. So, you know, there's just so many things, you can't single out one thing about her. It was just everything, she was just an amazing woman." (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "Now this is Charles, as Prince Charles. I had him in here on a chair in his pyjamas, as a family man holding Charlotte. Well, now that he's king, I'm going to have to change all of this. So Charles is about to get a lovely new suit and some new shoes and he will be changed from this throne to the other throne in there. But occasionally, he'll still get to hold the baby, I think." / HUGO MOVING THROUGH ROOM / "Now this is Charles' cabinet - Charles and Camilla. Beautiful pieces, the lovely plate up here with Charles and Camilla, I love that one. A plate here of Charles on his own. And this is the tea towel that I actually held when I met Charles and Camilla, they walked out of the Commonwealth Bank and I was holding that." VARIOUS OF IMAGE OF KING CHARLES AND QUEEN CONSORT CAMILLA ON TEA TOWEL (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "Oh, the thrill of my life. You know, not many people can actually say that they've met now the King and Queen (Consort) of England and they were lovely people. Camilla was just a beautiful person, so I think the country has actually softened to her. I think she's proven herself and I think she will make a great queen." VARIOUS OF CROCKERY WITH IMAGES OF KING CHARLES AND QUEEN CONSORT CAMILLA (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "That was brilliant. We actually met them in Martin Place in Sydney, we sort of got told where to stand, where they would come out the door and I was directly in front of them, and of course I'm holding the tea towel up and Camilla walked out first, looked up and went 'Oh my goodness, I'm on the tea towel.' So she came straight to me and we had a lovely chat, for you know it's only a couple of minutes, but it was great. And then Charles came along and I had a red shirt that I had taken the sleeves out and put Union Jack flags in for the sleeves. So he came along and gave me a rub on the shoulder, and had a chat and told me he felt special cause I had made the shirt for him. So that was brilliant." VARIOUS OF CROCKERY WITH IMAGES OF KING CHARLES AND QUEEN CONSORT CAMILLA (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "Well, I'd actually had a set of sunglasses on that had a crown attached, a beautiful, you know, plastic gold crown and Camilla actually wanted the glasses. So I almost took them off and gave them to her but my brother had given them to me and I thought if I hand these over to her, he's going to be pretty upset so she didn't get them." HUGO WALKING THROUGH DOOR DESIGNED AS BRITISH PHONE BOOTH SURROUNDED BY ROYAL MEMORABILIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "So when she actually walked out of Martin Place and we saw her, my first words as she walked out were, 'Oh my goodness, she's beautiful.' She has a face like a porcelain doll. Yeah she does have a few wrinkles like the rest of us because we are getting older, but she is a very attractive woman." HUGO WALKING TO GLASS CABINET, OPENING IT AND TAKING OUT PLATE WITH IMAGE OF KING CHARLES KING CHARLES'S IMAGE ON PLATE (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "I'm going to have lots of new pieces with him, King Charles III, so some of those pieces I've already ordered but then we'll have the coronation so they will be lots of pieces for that. Then William will become Prince of Wales, so there will be a crowning for him, he'll have all the pieces for his little ceremony. And then of course, Catherine is becoming Princess of Wales so there will be lots of pieces with that on with her. And on top of that, we're going to have all the new pieces from the Queen's passing as well. So I need a whole new castle, not just a another room to put it in, but I think I'm up for a castle now." (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR, JAN HUGO, SAYING: "I get very few people come through that are republicans. You do get the odd husband that's dragged along, you know, because the wife wants to come. So I don't know, I think it's got to be put to the vote, like it was before, and Australia will say what they want. You know, if there's enough people, we will be a republic, if not, we'll just stay the way we are." PLASTIC FIGURE OF KING CHARLES ON THRONE VARIOUS OF HUGO ADJUSTING FIGURES OF KING CHARLES AND PRINCESS CHARLOTTE AS A BABY HUGO WALKING AWAY SLIPPERS BEARING THE LIKENESS OF KING CHARLES
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2022 01:57
  • Keywords: Australia British royal family Jan Hugo King Charles III Prince of Wales Queen Elizabeth II collector memorabilia royals
  • Location: NULKABA, AUSTRALIA
  • City: NULKABA, AUSTRALIA
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Australia,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Royals
  • Reuters ID: LVA003546215092022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Walking into her kitchen to make tea, Australian Jan Hugo stands next to a plastic figure made in the likeness of Britain's Queen Consort Camilla while preparing her beverage.
    The 64-year old grandmother claims to have the country's largest collections of British royal memorabilia and Hugo is proud to to tell people she has met King Charles and his wife Camilla, now the Queen Consort, before his accession to the throne.
    Having marked Queen Elizabeth's 70th Platinum Jubliee in June, Hugo was saddened to hear of the monarch's death on Sept. 8, saying there were no words to describe Britain's longest-reigning monarch.
    "There's just so many things, you can't single out one thing about her. It was just everything, she was just an amazing woman," Hugo told Reuters on Thursday (September 15) from her home in Nulkaba, in New South Wales.
    Hugo met King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla when they toured Australia in 2015 and she said it was "the thrill of my life" when a tea towel bearing the likeness of the royal couple got their attention and gave her the chance to speak with them.
    Starting in 1981 with a commemorative coin celebrating the marriage of then Prince Charles and Diana, Hugo's collection now comprises of over 10,000 pieces and she is ready for more.
    With the royal family now changing their titles, Hugo has already purchased a dozen pieces to add to her expanding collection.
    "I need a whole new castle, not just a another room to put it in, I think I'm up for a castle now," she said.
    (Production: Stefica Nicol Bikes)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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