Princess Alice’s Opal Brooch

Yesterday marked the 160th Anniversary of the Birth of Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Henry of Prussia, and today we are featuring a spectacular Opal and Dimond Brooch which Princess Irene had inherited from her tragic mother, Princess Alice, who had received it as a Wedding Gift from her father, Prince Albert!

Diamond Fleur-de-Lys Tiara | Princess Alice’s Pearl Pendant | Princess Alice’s Opal Brooch

When Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland, the second daughter of Queen Victoria, married Prince Louis of Hesse in 1862, she received some spectacular wedding presents; The Hesse Strawberry Leaf Tiara, Pearl and Diamond Stars, a Sapphire Necklace, and Pearl and Diamond Brooches as well as a Parure of Opals set in Diamonds which included a large Brooch/Pendant, three smaller Opal and Diamond Brooches and a pair of Earrings, which were among wedding gifts from her father, the late Prince Albert, as Queen Victoria recalled in her journal:

a beautiful parure of opals, chosen by him, as his gift.”

Princess Alice first wore the large Opal Brooch as a Pendant along with the smaller Opal Brooches for her macabre Wedding Ceremony at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wright in 1862.

The following year, Princess Alice wore the large Opal Brooch again as a Pendant paired with the Hesse Strawberry Leaf Tiara, another posthumous wedding gift from Prince Albert, for the Wedding of her brother, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863.

The Opal Brooch was again worn as a Pendant from a large Diamond Rivière paired with the Hesse Strawberry Leaf Tiara for a series of portraits of Princess Alice taken in the late 1860s.

After Grand Duchess Alice’s tragic death in 1878, the Opal Brooch, probably along with the rest of the Parure, seems to have been left to her third daughter, Princess Irene, who notably wore the Brooch for a portrait not long after her marriage to Prince Henry of Prussia in 1888.

The fate of the Brooch is not known but since Princess Irene’s great-granddaughter still retains her Diamond Fleur-de-Lys Tiara, it is possible that the Opal Parure remains in the family.