Queen Elizabeth and the Diamond Jubilee Pencil – PPC

Pencils and Pop-Culture: Queen Elizabeth and the Diamond Jubilee Pencil

Hail Britannia, PPC followers! It’s time for Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the II of England, and I will fully admit that I have a case of Jubilee fever (Jubifever? Feverlee? I’ll work on it).

Yes, I was one of those crazy Americans who stayed up until 5:00 in the morning just to watch Catherine Middleton and Prince William tie the knot. Yes, I hosted a party, drank champagne and wore a tiara. And yes, I was bummed when I realized that they wouldn’t trot out the Royal Wedding as an annual event (Harry, get on that!).

But this year we have the Jubilee, and already we’ve seen some of the hallmarks that made the Royal Wedding so much fun. People in ridiculous hats! The Queen looking like everyone’s favorite grandmother! Kate and her enviable follicular DNA! Pencils!

…Yeah, I just said pencils. Allow me to explain.

The Royal Wedding was short on nothing, including mass-produced kitschy junk festooned with images of William and Kate. Coffee mugs, coasters, dishes, notebooks, and of course, pencils all got the William and Kate treatment, with varying levels of taste and success.

(Not that there’s anything wrong with owning a William and Kate coffee mug, right?)

(Right.)

(Thanks for backing me up on that.)

The Jubilee comes, of course, with its own unique brand of kitschy souvenirs, but two very cool pencil artifacts have stood above the rest.

British pencil manufacturer Derwent has created a special, diamond-encrusted pencil specifically for Her Majesty in honor of her Diamond Jubilee. The pencil is crafted from incense cedar, graphite from one of England’s first graphite mines, and a white-gold crown with 60 inset diamonds. Representatives from Derwent and Cumberland Pencil Company presented the pencil to the Queen in an English oak box with red velvet lining. It is one of two pencils of its kind in existence, with the twin going on display at the Cumberland Pencil Museum.

The other artifact that has surfaced in honor of the Queen’s Jubilee is an original sketch of her coronation gown, crafted by legendary English couturier Norman Hartnell.

The sketch shows the intricate detail that went into crafting the queen’s gown, from the symbols representing all of the British territories to the placement of the 10,000 seed pearls that were used to embellish it. Hartnell attained the distinction of being the first couturier knighted when he was so honored in 1977, two years before his death.

While I won’t be traveling to Britain to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee any time soon, it’s still fun to get caught up in the pomp and circumstance that such a celebration has to offer. While I’m glad to be an American, sometime this week I’ll have to pop on a fascinator, tip a Pimm’s cup toward the Atlantic, and toast the woman who has made it through sixty years of an unforgettable reign.