Kate Middleton and Her Lovely Herend China

The Duchess of Cambridge (aka Kate Middleton) has many things a girl can only dream of: royal husband, palaces to live in, killer wardrobe, romantic vacations with said husband.  The list goes on and on. She seems like a lovely lady with a great sense of style. 

Being competely content with my life I would not trade places with her. This being said, she does have a possession that I covet.  It is a Herend porcelain dining set, official gift of  Hungary to her and her husband Prince William for their wedding.  

I recently visited an exhibit of Herend china in Balatonfured, and this exquisite new pattern caught my eye. Taking a closer look, the sign said it was a redesign of the old Victoria motif, which was first created for (you guessed it) William's  great-great-great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria. This new pattern is much larger than the Victoria pattern, and the dominating color is a lovely light lavender. It is called Royal Garden and I absolutely have to have it! Below are some pictures I took of the set. Isn't it gorgeous?

I found some information on how the gift was presented. According to Laszlo Szesztay, Commercial Director of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory: 

"A Royal Garden dinner set was presented to Prince William and Princess Catherine on their wedding. As you may know, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge did not generally accept wedding presents, but they did accept ours—Prince William had fond childhood memories of Herend porcelain. Their personal representative collected our wedding present from the Hungarian embassy in London." (more here)

Herend was a favorite of the late Princess Diana also (thus the above mentioned fond childhood memories). She primarily collected figurines. It is a testament to the beauty and quality of this porcelain that so many royals are fans of it. 

Kate Middleton, you are one lucky girl. And you, dear reader, if you ever get to visit the lovely young Duchess, make sure you appreciate the gorgeous porcelain your scones are served on.