Today marks the 205th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Victoria, who was born on this day in 1819! The ‘Grandmother of Europe’ who mourned her husband for over 40 years, and whose Reign saw immense change and expansion of the British Empire, becoming second-longest reigning British Monarch and the British Empress of India, Queen Victoria possessed some magnificent jewels, which included her Turkish Diamond Necklace!
For her Coronation in 1838, Queen Victoria received several diamonds from Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire, which she used to commission a necklace, featuring three diamond rosettes connected by three strands of diamonds, and a pair of elaborate earrings from Rundell & Bridge. Queen Victoria always referred to the Diamond Suite as “my Turkish diamond necklace and earrings.”
The Turkish Diamond Necklace and Earrings became favourites of Queen Victoria in the early years of her reign, being worn worn for a plethora of important occasions, including her Wedding to Prince Albert in 1840.
Over the next few years, Queen Victoria wore her Turkish Diamond Necklace and Earrings for numerous occasions as well as a couple of gala portraits, including a famous one by Winterhalter, when the Turkish Diamond Suites was paired with the George IV State Diadem.
Queen Victoria also wore her Turkish Diamond Necklace and Earrings for the Christening of Victoria in Princess Royal in 1841, the Christening of the Prince of Wales in 1842, the British State Visit to France in 1855, the French State Visit to Britain in 1855, and also the Wedding of Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia in 1858.
Among the few years worn during her widowhood, Queen Victoria was photographed wearing the Turkish Diamond Necklace as late as the 1880s, pairing it with her Small Diamond Crown and the Coronation Earrings.
At some point by the 1880s, Queen Victoria gave the Turkish Diamond Earrings to her elder daughter-in-law, the future Queen Alexandra, who wore them as pendants from a necklace. The Earrings are reportedly the same ones now in the collection of the Norwegian Royal Family.
For the Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in 1896, the Turkish Diamond Necklace was among the jewels loaned by Queen Victoria to her daughter-in-law, Princess Louise Margaret, the Duchess of Connaught, as described:
“Victoria, who had seen the splendour of Marie’s jewels, was determined that Arthur’s wife Louise Margaret, a Prussian princess by birth, would not be overshadowed in Moscow. She therefore lent a collection of her own jewels, including a diamond necklace and a several large stars which the duchess wore linked together as a tiara. Prince Arthur then wondered whether he would be expected to insure them, a slightly worrying prospect as they would have to be covered to the value of £30,000.”
A few years later, the Turkish Diamond Necklace was among the jewels inherited by Queen Victoria’s favourite son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, and worn by the Duchess of Connaught with her Fringe Tiara at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, and the Coronation of King George V in 1911.
After the Duchess of Connaught’s death in 1917, the Turkish Diamond Necklace was inherited by her only son, Prince Arthur of Connaught but was not pictured on his wife, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, whose nephew and heir, the 3rd Duke of Fife inherited it in 1959.
Eventually, Queen Victoria’s Turkish Diamond Necklace went up for Auction at Sotheby’s in 1970, where it sold for £23,000. The current location, or if it even exists, is unknown.
