Patronage
Jewellery formed out of Welsh gold has been bought by members of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and her mother, Princess Margaret, Prince Charles, Diana, Princess of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall all wear or wore wedding rings fashioned from Welsh gold, as did Kate Middleton for her marriage to Prince William. The Queen was presented with a kilogram ingot of Welsh gold on her 60th birthday (April 1986) from the Gwynfynydd gold mine.
Due to its rarity, Welsh gold is very much more expensive to buy on the high street and is often mixed with other gold bullion. Jewellery often sold as Welsh Gold in the UK contains an extremely small percentage of real Welsh gold. The usual way of describing such jewellery is that "each piece contains a touch of welsh gold". The definition of 'a touch' is open to interpretation but in reality is usually much less than 1 percent.
Read more about this topic: Welsh Gold
Famous quotes containing the word patronage:
“She loved money, but could occasionally part with it, especially to men of learning, whose patronage she affected. She often conversed with them, and bewildered herself in their metaphysical disputes, which neither she nor they themselves understood.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Each of the Arts whose office is to refine, purify, adorn, embellish and grace life is under the patronage of a Muse, no god being found worthy to preside over them.”
—Eliza Farnham (1815–1864)