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Buckingham Palace has denied a claim by a Chinese company that it will be supplying the official tableware for the forthcoming royal wedding.
Ceramics manufacturer Guangxi Sanhuan Group says it outbid over 500 other companies worldwide to win the contract to produce the porcelain for the April 29 marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton.
It claims that the order is for 16,000 pieces, including dinner plates and coffee cups and saucers along with commemorative mugs and souvenir plates, which will be both used at the wedding and presented as gifts to guests. The design has a photograph of the prince and his fiancée inside a heart shape.
The company will apparently finish producing the order by the middle of this month.
However, according to an official at Buckingham Palace: “This simply isn’t true. We have not authorised anything like that at all.” And he added that an order for wedding tableware may not be awarded to any company, with the royal couple preferring to use existing pieces.
Buckingham Palace has laid down certain ground rules for souvenirs that can be sold to commemorate the wedding. Nevertheless, the market is expected to be flooded with huge quantities of unauthorised merchandise.
