Jubilee Diamonds

Several of us from HK went to visit Buckingham Palace in the summer for their annual opening. Particularly because this year there was a special exhibition of diamonds in celebration of Her Majesty’s Jubilee. And we were looking at different styles to inspire our own diamond engagement rings.

The pieces on display were from the Royal Collection and from The Queen’s personal collection, and were of course all superb. They were chosen to represent the ways that royalty & collectors have used diamonds over the last three hundred years, for the skills used in making the mounts & setting the stones, and of course to show them off as the true works of art that they are. Each piece was displayed sideways in the glass cabinets so that whichever way you approached it you could see all the way round each one, to admire not only their extraordinary sparkle but so you could see the incredible workmanship that went into their construction. Many were shown alongside paintings or photographs of the pieces being worn.

I think my favourite piece of them all in the collection was Queen Victoria’s Small Diamond Crown. It was commissioned from R &S Garrard and Co. in March 1870 after the death of Prince Albert’s death. Since the Queen wore mourning for the rest of her life after his demise she couldn’t wear the brighter jewels she had previously but needed something she could wear on state occasions…

The crown is 10cm in diameter, and weighs a mere 140g. It is made in silver laminated with gold and set with 1,187 diamonds of different shapes and cut patterns. This works beautifully so that from a distance it looks like it’s made of nothing but diamonds- you’re not aware of the metal that is actually holding the stones. The work is very open so that it’s got a lace-like quality to it, in fact it was generally worn by the Queen over a veil of Honiton lace.

The crown is remeniscent of a traditional English crown, with arches and fleurs de lis, and an orb with another cross above it sits at the top. The overall look is similar to a crown Victoria had worn earlier in her reign, which had belonged to Queen Charlotte but which had been returned to Hanover in 1858. The arches & orb can be removed so that it can be worn as a simpler circlet.

Victoria was seen wearing the crown so regularly that it became very much a part of the image we have of her in her later years. I was so pleased to have had the opportunity to see it in real life and plan to do so again when it is retuned to its more usual home at the Tower of London.