Queen Elizabeth II souvenir hunter once struck a deal with Her Majesty

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Joy Suluk was born somewhere north of Arviat, Nunavut, in 1953, and spent the first years of her life living “off the land,” as her forebears always had. In summers, the family moved to the northwest coast of Hudson’s Bay to hunt, but they moved inland during the winters to hunker down against the elements.

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Suluk was around nine years old when the federal government opened a day school in Arviat. Many of the teachers there were good, but a few were otherwise. “Bad seeds,” she recalled. But she survived, and a few months shy of her 70th birthday, the retired educator is a joyful, forward-facing, optimistic person.

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Which is to say she doesn’t dwell on the past, but she hasn’t forgotten it either. Among her most enduring school memories is standing next to her desk each morning to sing God Save the Queen.

She didn’t know who, exactly, this Queen was, or why she was singing about her. But she remembers the way a young Queen Elizabeth II looked because she would stare at the picture of the “beautiful lady with the piercing blue eyes” above the blackboard.

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That image stuck with Suluk. Twenty years later, it showed up at her front door in Arviat in the form of a cookie tin — a gift from her sister-in-law — with the image of the piercing, blue-eyed Queen on its lid.

“I started collecting anything with an image of the Queen on it after that,” she said, explaining the roots of what, by her best reckoning, is the largest private collection of Queen Elizabeth-themed souvenirs in the Canadian Arctic.

Be forewarned: the great mass of memorabilia with her likeness is more or less worthless.

Queen Elizabeth died on Sept. 8, but the tchotchkes for sale bearing her image live on in brick-and-mortar souvenir shops, websites, antique markets and, one presumes, forgotten corners of Canadian households whose owners may or may not recall the origins of, say, that miniature teacup with the Queen’s image on it that they inherited from Grandma and have boxed away somewhere.

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But those eager to capitalize on the Queen’s passing should be forewarned: the great mass of memorabilia with her likeness is more or less worthless.

“All of the mass-produced souvenir items, like the plates and the mugs tend to have pretty minimal value,” Gary Dawson, a Canadian Association of Antique Dealers’ board member, said.

Aside from the sheer ubiquity of Queen-related products, one issue preventing the discerning, well-financed, hypothetical collector from spending significant sums to obtain even rare items associated with Her Majesty is that despite ruling for 70 years and dying at age 96, the items simply aren’t old enough.

“Antiques tend not to be considered valuable until they are at least 100 years old,” Dawson said.

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As for the tchotchkes, the antique dealer is aware of at least three people in his milieu who have loaded every piece of Queen memorabilia they possess, and previously had been unable to unload, onto Etsy and eBay in hopes of cashing in on the sovereign’s death.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Cool Britannia, a memorabilia shop selling British-themed products across the street from Buckingham Palace, had its suppliers working overtime to keep the shelves packed with royal-related trinkets, including rubber ducks bedecked with crowns and bobbleheads of the departed Queen.

Ismayil Ibrahim, the store manager, predicted the current, mad run on goods would further intensify as official souvenirs commemorating both the Queen’s life — and death — start to appear.

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“People kept asking us, ‘Have you got anything yet?’ he told the Associated Press.

While most royalty-related souvenirs are typically priced under $50 and presumably destined, in time, for the neighbourhood street sale, there are items connected to the Queen that carry a distinct cachet among collectors and can fetch a decent sum at auction and in private sales.

For example, the lords and ladies of the realm who were invited to the Queen’s 1953 coronation ceremony sat in chairs produced for the occasion by W. Hands and Sons Ltd. These guests were given the opportunity to purchase the chairs afterwards. Many did.

Some of those folks were Canadian, and some of those fancy, limed-oak, blue-velvet chairs, numbered and monogrammed with Her Majesty’s initials, returned to Canada with them.

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“I have come across coronation chairs for the Queen’s father’s coronation in 1937 in dealing with wealthy Canadian families that were invited to attend, and they possess status,” Dawson said. “But I have never seen one sell for more than $1,000.”

Sometimes, Dawson added, the descendants of those invited to the coronation who want to sell the chairs decide otherwise after meeting with an antique dealer and learning they aren’t as valuable as they may have hoped.

Regardless, a coronation chair is still a little rich for Joy Suluk’s budget. She raised five children, and during her buying trips to Winnipeg — she has never bought any collectible online — she would limit herself to a maximum of four purchases.

Teacups, saucers, pots, spoons, old newspapers, magazines, books about the royal family, she has it all, totalling some 200 objects, with the most expensive being a teapot that cost $80 at a Winnipeg antique store.

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Her Majesty was also known to do some collecting herself during official visits, including one to Rankin Inlet in 1994, where the royal handlers trailing in her wake during a walk-around at an artisanal fair purchased a handmade blue-and-white quilt with polar bears and whales on it from a speechless Suluk.

“They paid $200 cash,” she said. “In that moment, I forgot how to speak English. I had to get the person next to me to translate. The money didn’t matter. I hope they used the quilt.”

A quick Google search failed to reveal the quilt’s present whereabouts, but it did unearth a 2003 edition of the Royal “gifts policy” that clearly states: “Members of The Royal Family are personally liable for any tax or duty that personal gifts or purchases may attract.”

Suluk never knew what she was looking for on her own treasure hunts, but operated instead on the buyer’s principle of knowing what she wanted just as soon as she found it.

And what she has found since the Queen’s passing is that her appetite for collecting is at an end.

“I think it is time to put her to rest and step away,” she said.

• Email: joconnor@postmedia.com | Twitter: oconnorwrites