Purveyors to His Majesty –
yesterday and today

Sweden has been a monarchy for over a thousand years. For all this time, craftsmen, merchants and others have been delivering goods and services to the monarch and the Royal Family.

The first suppliers to the Royal Family were the artisans and merchants who plied their trades in the quarters around the Royal Palace in Stockholm and the other Swedish royal residences. When the Royal Family then gradually started to order goods from other parts of the country and from abroad, the system of royal warrants also began to spread.

In the 17^th century, and probably earlier still, the title "merchant to the king" was used. By the end of the century this had given way to the practice of writing "His Royal Majesty's" and then the trade or profession. This gave rise to titles such as His Royal Majesty's Baker and His Royal Majesty's Tailor. The word Majesty was later replaced by "Royal Court", and craftsmen and merchants started to style themselves Baker to the Royal Court, Tailor to the Royal Court, Chimney Sweep to the Royal Court.

One of the first royal pastry cooks was one Hans Georg Düben. In the days of Karl XI and Karl XII he had a pastry shop on Gråmunkegränd in Stockholm's Old Town. The most famous royal cabinet-maker and casket-maker of all times was Georg Haupt.

Another famous 18^th century craftsman was the royal watchmaker Johan Fredman. His professional activities are largely forgotten today, but his somewhat shadowy private life was immortalized in the Epistles and Songs of the great Swedish bard Carl Michael Bellman, still popular today.

During the reign of French-born Karl XIV Johan a more regulated system for the awarding of royal warrants was established. It was also at this time that a fee for the privilege of calling oneself a purveyor of goods or services to the royal household was introduced. The price was relatively high but the title was sought-after and highly prestigious. No other system of quality certification which could testify to an artisan's skill or to the high and consistent quality of a product existed at the time.

The fees charged of the royal warrant-holders went in part to the Royal Court's benevolent fund. The profits were used for charitable purposes, for example to help poor widows and to provide pensions for palace retainers. To this day these funds are still used for the staff of the Royal Court just as originally intended.

The archives of the Royal Palace in Stockholm hold all the applications for royal warrants submitted since 1872, when Oskar II became King of Sweden. The applications were often accompanied by descriptions of the company, photographs and letters of recommendation.

At the end of the 19^th century inquiries about royal warrants could vary greatly, and could be anything from short and concise to lengthy and detailed.

A number of Swedish monarchs also granted royal warrants to suppliers from abroad. At the time of Oskar II and Gustaf V many of these were producers of drinks and delicatessen foods. Wines came from Madeira, fresh flowers from Grasse on the French Riviera, and in 1910 Gustaf V awarded a royal warrant to Steinway & Sons, makers of Pianos, in New York. Another of Gustav V's suppliers was Maison Doyen in Strasbourg, whose goose liver pâté was prized by gourmets the world over.

Then as now, purveyors to the King represented the most diverse fields of activity. A hundred years ago they included shoe manufacturers, ornamental iron foundries, florists and shipowners among their number. They owned steam breweries, trading houses, perfumeries and fancy-goods shops. What they had in common was that they supplied goods to a member of the Royal Family – in other words, not necessarily to the King himself.

Royal warrants today
Swedish royal warrants are these days awarded by a specific member of the Royal Family to the head of the company in question. This means that a warrant has to be renewed after the death of the monarch or when there is a change in the company leadership. The accession of a new monarch consequently gives rise to a host of applications from companies hoping to gain a royal warrant from the new head of state.

When Carl XVI Gustaf succeeded to the throne in 1973 the whole concept of awarding royal warrants was felt to be out of keeping with the times and he initially considered not granting any at all. However, instead of doing away with the practice the King tightened up the regulations for awarding royal warrants, thereby bringing the old honorary title up to date. A royal warrant costs nothing today, but by the same token very few companies are now chosen for the honour. Some 130 companies hold the title of Purveyor to H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf at present. They represent a wide range of fields of activity and are all based in Sweden.

If past Kings of Sweden awarded many royal warrants to vintners, delicatessen food suppliers, patissiers, brewers and tobacco companies, the picture is a little different today. A number of the present King's warrant-holders, for example Fjällräven, Lundhags shoemakers and the bicycle manufacturer Albert Samuelsson & Co in Skeppshult, supply products for outdoor pursuits. Confectioners, food suppliers and many interior decorators are still to be found among royal warrant-holders, but there are no beer, wine or tobacco companies. Although one brewery, Spendrups, does indeed supply the royal household, its warrant was awarded specifically for its Loka mineral water.

The products supplied by firms with royal warrants are destined both for the Royal Family's private use and for wider use in the Royal Palaces. A number of the warrant-holders supply merchandise for the Royal Palace shops, where goods such as brass candlesticks from the Skultuna brass foundry and stoneware from the Paradis workshop on the Baltic island of Öland are on sale to visitors. The Royal Couple frequently take gifts from Sweden, often from royal suppliers, on foreign tours and state visits.

Extract from the book "By Appointment to His Majesty The King of Sweden".