A napkin honouring a special Royal visit to Aberdeen more than 110 years ago has been sent more than 10,000 miles to take pride of place in a north-east museum.
Last month, there was surprise at the townhouse when a doily marking the visit of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, presented to guests at a grand dinner in 1906 to celebrate the opening of the modern part of the city’s Marischal College, turned up in an envelope from Thailand marked for Lord Provost Barney Crockett.
It was eventually discovered that an Aberdonian in the Far East had sent the item in after picking it up in an antiques shop in Montrose some 40 years ago.
And now a second serviette has been found – with this one travelling some 10,670 miles from Tasmania to Alford.
Grampian Transport Museum is now looking after the doily after it was given by a Bruce Wilkinson who lives in the Australian territory.
Museum collections manager Peter Donaldson said that Mr Wilkinson’s grandfather had worked on the city’s trams before emigrating to Australia in 1914, taking the paper napkin with him.
It has since been sent back to the north-east and is now displayed at the museum.
Mr Donaldson said: “It is amazing how far these napkins have made it around the world.”
