The Royalty Nerd

February 10th, 1840 marks the 184th wedding anniversary for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert!

Prince Albert is well known for his fantastic jewel designs, so to mark their wedding day, here are four tiaras that Albert designed for Victoria.

The Sapphire Coronet:

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Arguably the best known piece designed by Prince Albert is the sapphire coronet. This coronet, which is basically just a smaller tiara, or ‘mini crown’ you might say, was designed by Albert in 1840 and created by Joseph Kitching of Kitching and Abud in 1842.

The coronet frame is quite bendy, as you can see between the above photo compared to the portrait, the coronet can be pulled into a tight circle or widened to fit more across the head, which you can see on Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, below.

Princess Mary is Victoria’s great-granddaughter, and through her, the piece passed through family hands until it was sold privately. In 2015, it nearly left the UK entirely but the application to remove it from the country was withdrawn. Eventually, the tiara ended up in the V&A museum.

The Ruby Strawberry Leaf Tiara:

Now this one is definitely the most mysterious of the four. The ruby strawberry leaf tiara (not to be confused with the Hesse strawberry leaf tiara which was also designed by Prince Albert, but for his daughter), is currently MIA and it’s origins are almost as hard to find out.

In the description for the above portrait, Royal Collection Trust indicates that this tiara may be the bandeau that was later redesigned into the strawberry leaf tiara. It’s Royal Magazin that does the legwork here, and writes that the piece went through many different changes over the years and that Albert had a hand in the eventual design. Queen Victoria retired from many things for a long while after Albert’s death; one of those things was jewels. However, she did wear the piece for the wedding of her daughter Princess Louise in 1871.

Queen Ena, what are you doing here girl?

The tiara would pass to Victoria and Albert’s daughter, Princess Beatrice, who’s daughter was none other than Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. However just because Queen Ena wore the tiara doesn’t necessarily mean it ended up in Spanish hands:

The tiara was inherited by Beatrice’s son, Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke. His wife Irene is wearing the tiara above.

There’s still questions about where this tiara is now and if it’s even still in one piece. I certainly hope so!

The Oriental Circlet:

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Out of all the pieces here, this is the only one still in the British royal family collection. Prince Albert is believed to have taken inspiration for the design of this piece by the Lahore jewels that Queen Victoria acquired in the early 1850’s. This piece, like many others in the British royal family’s collection, is attributed to Garrard.

Fun fact about this piece: it’s set with rubies now, but was originally set with opals.

The Emerald Tiara:

The emerald tiara was designed by Albert who once again went to Joseph Kitching to see his ideas realized. It was created for only 1,150 pounds (someone else can do the math on what that’s worth today).

What’s awesome about this piece is that there is a whole suite of jewels to go with it!

Prince Albert designed the above necklace, earrings, and brooch to go along with Victoria’s engagement ring in 1843. The tiara came only two years later.

These jewels are housed at Kensington Palace, on display after having been passed down the family of Victoria’s Fife descendants.