The Small Diamond Crown of Queen Victoria

Portrait of Queen Victoria wearing the Small Diamond Crown. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

In many of Queen Victoria’s portraits one would see a small crown adorning her head and complementing her widow’s cap. Despite the diminutiveness of its size, Queen Victoria’s small crown emerged as the royal jewel most associated with her, one that symbolizes her long, illustrious reign.

On that terrible night of December 1861, Prince Albert died and his passing shattered the young, widowed queen who took her mourning seriously and shut herself away from the public eye. From then on until her dying day, she only wore a black and white ensemble, colloquially known as widow's weeds. Her semi-retirement would linger for the next nine years until increasing republican sentiments government pressured her to come back into the public view in 1870.

On February 9, 1871, the Queen opened the Parliament but she refused to wear her Imperial State Crown for two reasons. Obviously, it was too heavy and uncomfortable for her to wear, and she did not want to part with her widow's cap. Thus, a new small crown was created, one that she would use when performing her ceremonial duties as a monarch and while wearing her dress as a widow.

Manufactured by Garrard & Co. in 1870,  the crown was described in the Royal Collection trust website as a priceless jewel with “an openwork silver frame set with 1,187 brilliant-cut and rose-cut diamonds in open-backed collet mounts.” The band features frieze of lozenges and ovals in oval apertures set between two rows of single diamonds, which support four crosses-pattée and four fleurs-de-lis, with four half-arches above, surmounted by a monde and a further cross-pattée.

The jewellers had in mind the Queen’s comfort when  they were making the crown, so it should be light and easy to wear. After the State Opening of Parliament, the Queen has used it for every state occasion, in receiving guests at formal drawing-rooms and when sitting for portraits of her later reign. The crown became the sole piece of jewelry that was closely associated with the image of the Queen.

On her death, it was placed on her coffin at Osborne. Queen Victoria willed it to the Crown and it was subsequently worn by Queen Alexandra  on certain occasions. It then passed on to Queen Mary, who stopped wearing it after the death of King George V. Her successor, Queen Elizabeth chose not to wear it  so King George VI turned over the crown to the Jewel House at the Tower of London, where it is displayed for the public to see until this day.