PART OF THE SPECTACULAR SUITE OF HISTORIC ROYAL GEMS ON DISPLAY AT KENSINGTON PALACE AS PART OF VICTORIA REVEALED. © HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES

Victoria adored jewelry and usually wore it in abundance, though the large pieces she favored could be overwhelming in proportion to her small stature. The queen always wore numerous rings, brooches, and bracelets and was never without the bracelet set with Albert's miniature. It graced her arm from their engagement to the day she died. Victoria's jewel collection was, and is, one of the finest ever amassed.

Albert, a Renaissance man, often gifted Victoria with jewelry of his own design. An ongoing gift, which began as a gold and porcelain orange blossom brooch and later included earrings and a wreath, all in the orange blossom theme, not only became symbolically important in royal weddings, it was one of the most copied of all of the Queen’s jewels.

Orange Blossom Parure, Gifts from Albert to Victoria 1839-1846.

Significant amongst these was an emerald and diamond parure consisting of a diadem, necklace, earrings and a brooch. This collection, now on display at Kensington Palace, showcases Prince Albert’s flair for design as well as the exquisite workmanship of nineteenth century goldsmiths.

QUEEN VICTORIA'S EMERALD AND DIAMOND PARURE, WHICH IS ON DISPLAY AT KENSINGTON PALACE AS PART OF VICTORIA REVEALED © HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES

Jewelry was produced for the queen to mark special milestones and to wear to balls and entertainments; jewelry was created for marking the birth of each of her nine children, birthdays and anniversaries, and as gifts to be presented at family marriages and births. Detailed records exist in the archives of the jewelers who produced them; R. & S. Garrard and Rundell, Bridge & Co. In addition, trained jewelers and artisans went to work producing jewels for the Crown.

A sapphire and diamond coronet, just 4.5 inches, designed by Prince Albert in 1840, the year of their marriage, is now on permanent exhibition at the V & A museum in London.

As an expression of her grief, Victoria rarely wore colored stone jewelry after Albert died, but she did wear the coronet, wearing it in place of her heavy crown in 1866, the first time she opened Parliament after his death. In a 1874 portrait, she wore it as an anchor to her widow’s veil.

Henry Richard Graves’s 1874 portrait of Queen Victoria wearing the coronet that Albert designed for her.

QUEEN VICTORIA, 1875 © HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES

As the era of Queen Victoria came to an end with her death in 1901, much of her jewelry had been secured as property of the Crown, held in trust for English Queens. Jewelry boxes of purple morocco lined with white velvet bearing the Queen’s cipher were created for the distribution of the remainder of her jewels.

You can now see some of her most cherished pieces at Kensignton Palace or the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. But if you want to really be dazzled the next time you visit London, do not miss the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.

The Crown Jewels

The Paper Dolls

Queen Victoria’s Petticoat