Today marks the 125th Anniversary of the Death of Queen Victoria, who passed away on this day in 1901! The ‘Grandmother of Europe’ who mourned her husband for over 40 years, and whose Reign saw immense change and expansion of the British Empire, becoming second-longest reigning British Monarch and the British Empress of India, Queen Victoria possessed some magnificent jewels, which included this Diamond Crown!
The Crown was commissioned by Queen Victoria from Garrard in 1870, to wear over her widow’s cap as she continued to mourn Prince Albert, and found it difficult to wear the heavier Imperial State Crown and George IV State Diadem. The Small Diamond Crown is composed of a diamond base with four cross pattée and fleur-de-lis and four arches joining at a monde in an openwork silver frame 9 cm across and 10 cm high, all set with 1,187 diamonds, including some that were taken from a diamond fringe ornament made by Garrard in 1856, and may have been based on Queen Charlotte’s Nuptial Crown.
The crown comprises an openwork silver frame set with 1,187 brilliant-cut and rose-cut diamonds in open-backed collet mounts. The band is formed with a frieze of lozenges and ovals in oval apertures, between two rows of single diamonds, supporting four crosses-pattée and four fleurs-de-lis, with four half-arches above, surmounted by a monde and a further cross-pattée.
Queen Victoria first wore her new Diamond Crown at the State Opening of Parliament in 1871, and frequently used it for State occasions, and for receiving guests at formal Drawing-rooms.
Queen Victoria also wore the Small Diamond Crown for many of the portraits of her later reign, sometimes worn without the arches, including those taken for Golden Jubilee in 1887 and her Diamond Jubilee, taken in 1897, as well as the Wedding of the Duke of York and Princess May of Teck in 1893.
The Small Diamond Crown was such an integral part of the Queen’s image in her latter years that it was placed on top of her coffin after her death at Osborne House.
By the time of her death, the small crown had become so closely associated with the image of the Queen, that it was placed on her coffin at Osborne.
Queen Victoria left her Small Diamond Crown to the Crown “to be worn by future Queens in right of it”, and it was worn by Queen Alexandra for the State Opening of Parliament in 1901 just a few weeks after Queen Victoria’s passing.
The Diamond Crown was also worn by Queen Alexandra for the State Openings of Parliament in 1902 and 1907 among a few others, paired with several of the most magnificent heirlooms of the Crown.
Queen Alexandra also notably wore the Small Diamond Crown with her Cartier Collier Résille and Koh-i-Noor Diamond for an iconic portrait by François Flameng, which hangs in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.
Queen Alexandra retained the Small Diamond Crown in her possession upon being widowed, wearing it with her Diamond Circlet for the Wedding of Prince Arthur of Connaught and her granddaughter, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, in 1913.
The Crown was not pictured on Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth, and in 1937, King George VI deposited it in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, where it remains on public display with the rest of the Crown Jewels.
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