What exactly does this mean when you find that label on food? That the Queen eats it too? Or that at one time the Royals did? Does she have HP sauce in her cupboard?
It means that the manufacturer/retailer/business has been granted a Royal Warrant to use the phrase. Presumably, anyone who discovers that Her Majesty is a patron of their products can apply and receive the Warrant.
And yes, it is meant to imply that Her Majesty has the good taste to stock HP Sauce (probably the Bold version ;)).
It means that the company is the official supplier to the royal noted on the label - Queen, Prince of Wales, Queen Mother, etc. And yes, it means the the various palaces have HP sauce in the kitchens.
b.t.w. HP (Houses of Parliament) Sauce is provided on every table in the Houses of Parliament cafeteria. (or was when I got the chance to work there several years ago).
But that phrase is also printed on cigarette packs. And more than one brand uses it. Does the Queen smoke all thos brands too?
The warrant holders delivering their products to the Queen Mother must have a superlatively good distribution system.
Now this is a handy coincidence. I haven’t been on the boards in ages but I was going to ask this…
Do the “By Royal Appointment” manufacturers give the products to the Royal Family gratis, i.e. the Queen gets free stuff in return for letting them use her crest on the packet?
Slightly off topic, but which royals have a warrant? Is it only the major royals who can allow a company to print their crest? Could Prince Edward, for instance? Is it a case of them not allowing it, or no companies wanting it printed on their products?
Yes and no. They tend to send some stuff gratis, but it is in no way a quid pro quo. You can’t buy a Royal Warrant that way. It really is just a way of putting on airs. “This is the same toilet paper that wipes Charlie’s arse” and all that.
So far as I can tell, the only Royals that have issued warrants are members of the immediate royal family - Queen, Queen Mum (R.I.P. - Yes, I know, Cunctator. ), and Charles. I have never seen a warrant for Anne, however, so I don’t know how far it really extends. You would think that Randy Andy Condoms - by appointment to Prince Andrew would be a big seller!
HRH the Duke of Edinburgh also issues royal warrants.
There’s some useful information (particularly in the FAQ section) at the site of the Royal Warrant Holders’ Association. It appears that all goods are purchased at the normal commercial rates.
Isn’t it just a high-falootin’ way of saying “We endorse this fine product/service”?
The Queen doesn’t smoke at all. The only reason some cigarette manufacturers had her warrant was because the Royal Household bought the cigarettes for use by guests and, in any case, the Gallaher Group (i.e. Benson & Hedges), the last of them to have her warrant, lost it in 1999.
It’s more a high-falootin’ way of controlling companies’ claims that ‘Our fine produce/service is used by the Queen etc.’ The system arose because suppliers were always quick to realise that being able to claim that you supplied the royal palaces was the ultimate celebrity endorsement. Even - or especially - if the claim was bogus or just much exaggerated. What exists now is really just a system of certificates to verify the claims by the genuine regular suppliers. The laws regulating advertising in the UK prevent anyone else so much as implying that the Queen endorses a particular product.
Nor is it just the British monarchy that does this. Most other European courts have similar systems. The most obvious example is probably Denmark, because of the royal warrant for Carlsberg.
Indeed, there are some companies which once supplied now-defunct courts that still mention this on their products and, in the case of the former Imperial ‘K. und K.’ suppliers in Vienna, the continuation of the old warrants exists as a formally regulated system.
Oh, Christ. Corporate sponsorship of royalty. In a few months, it’ll be the “Diet Pepsi Buckingham Palace” and “Her Royal Highness, Exxon-Mobile Queen Elizabeth II”.
Fascinating, though. I had no idea this occured.
Well, corporate sponsorship of royalty might be fun to watch, and might be a step on the way to getting rid of them.
I don’t imagine that any consumer buys product X because of a royal warrant though.
The Duke of Edinburgh also pointedly did not renew Harrod’s warrant due to the enmit that exists between Al-Fayed and the Windsors.
Check out a bottle of Metaxa Ouzo some time. It is bottled “By Appointment to His Majesty the Late King of Serbia”; apparently you can take it with you.