The royal family is famous the world over for their weird and wonderful habits and pastimes, some of which date back hundreds of years of history. Whether it’s playing polo, driving horse-drawn carriages or hunting grouse, members of the royal family have very exclusive and classy hobbies. But did you know that even some of the most privileged people in the world enjoy the same comforts as us?
From Prince Charles’ love of gardening to the Duchess of Cambridge’s passion for cooking, we are very similar in so many ways. The Queen is no different from her family and has had many hobbies during her 96 years, such as filming with movie cameras to catch up on her favorite TV shows. Her Majesty also followed in the footsteps of her ancestors and chose to collect various objects. The strangest of them is… pepper mills.
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(Image: 2011 Tim Graham)
While it’s unclear exactly why or when the monarch embarked on her journey of collecting pepper mills, it’s said that she finds her selection quite amusing. One of his favorites was a gift from a friend that came from an Italian restaurant in the form of a plastic waiter.
It is reported that when you break your head for pepper, he shouts with an Italian accent: “You break my neck!” which the Queen would find hilarious. But the pepper mills are not the only objects that the queen has wanted to collect. More traditionally, she became the fifth generation of royals to be added to the historic family stamp collection. Today, the royal stamp collection is said to be worth over £10 million.
Royal expert Phil Dampier told Fabulous Digital: ‘The Queen loves to show visitors her stamp collection, heads of state who stay at Buckingham Palace say. It is one of her prides and joys, not only because she owns some of the most valuable stamps in the world, but also because she has built on a family treasure and feels a sense of to have done the pride of his father and of the former monarchs who owned it.
The Queen not only left the collection as it was when the likes of Prince Alfred and King George VI worked there, she added to it. The rarest and most expensive addition was a Mauritius stamp worth £2million. It was featured in a traveling exhibition to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.
The stamp is one of the most prized in the world and was issued by the Colonial Post Office of Mauritius in 1847. The Queen also spent £250,000 on a unique set of 10 Penny Blacks dated the first day they were put into circulation. , May 6, 1840.
(Image: PA wire)
But of all the royal guardians, King George V was the most dedicated to maintaining and growing the collection. While still Duke of York, Prince George was made Honorary Vice-President of what would become the Royal Philatelic Society of London in 1893.
He also received a book containing 1,500 stamps on the occasion of his marriage to Princess Mary of Teck from his fellow society members. King George V’s dedication to his hobby knew no bounds, and he even set the record for the highest price ever paid for a stamp.
In 1904 he was asked by a courtier if he had seen “that some damn fool paid as much as £1,450 for a single stamp”. George replied, “Yeah, I’m that damn fool”.
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