Queen Victoria amassed a major collection of jewellery throughout her long reign, including a special pearl and diamond necklace which she received when she celebrated her Golden Jubilee.
In 1887, as Victoria marked 50 years on the throne, the Countess of Stratford led the “Women of the British Empire” in collecting funds for a gift to the monarch to celebrate her Golden Jubilee.
While a large part of the funds collected were used to create an equestrian statue of Prince Albert (found in Windsor), the rest of the money was used to create an elegant necklace.
In The Queen’s Jewels, Leslie Field says ”the design is of graduated diamond trefoils, each with a pearl centre. The centrepiece is a quatrefoil of diamonds with a pearl centre and drop pendant. Surmounting it is a pearl and diamond crown.”
The necklace features twenty five round pearls of varying sizes, one pear-shaped pearl, and hundreds of diamonds. But its most striking feature is the jewel encrusted rendering of the Crown, a sparkling symbol of Victoria’s reign. Her Golden Jubilee was the first time that a woman had marked fifty years of reign in Britain.
Queen Victoria left this necklace to the Crown upon her death in 1901.
Queen Mary was pictured wearing the central element as a brooch, but it does not appear to have been one of her go-to pieces.
The young Queen Elizabeth II had her own thoughts, though. She wore the Golden Jubilee Necklace for her first State Opening of Parliament as Monarch in 1952 and continued to wear it frequently throughout her reign.
The late Queen often wore the stunning necklace it with the Vladimir Tiara or the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara.
