Meet Tasmania's largest royal memorabilia collector James Smith

Mr Smith, a Breadalbane man, said he inherited a portrait of Queen Victoria from his Scottish and English grandparents.

"I inherited a few, and then a few relatives started giving them to me, and then it got a bit out of control," Mr Smith said.

The largest owner of Royal memorabilia in Tasmania said he started buying items when he worked in England for a while and would often travel back and forth between Australia and England.

Mr Smith said it took around 12 months to set up the main room with royal memorabilia and that he had around 12,000 items.

He also mentioned that for a number of years, he was buying items from garage sales and Ebay and would drag the items on trains, buses and planes.

"One day when I finish working, which probably won't be for a while, I would like to have a hall or a building and open it up as an exhibition to the public because no one sees it here.

Mr Smith also described some of his most prized possessions.

Read more here: Royal memorabilia collector Jan Hugo reflects on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II

"Some of the teapots in there are limited editions worldwide of five, and there are a lot of teapots from Buckingham Palace which are limited edition.

"There are a few hundred worldwide, so to get your hands on some of those, you need to be quick," he said.

He also believed that his oldest item was a tapestry of King William IV, which he dated to a bit more than 200 years old.

Mr Smith said the Queen's death came as a shock to him.

"I guess at 96 she has had a pretty good life. It wasn't to be expected but I guess it was still a shock because two days ago she was still working, and I think that was probably the shock part, that she was still doing her work," he said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: