Princess Victoria’s Sapphire Anchor Brooch

This past weekend, the Margravine of Baden wore an heirloom Diamond and Sapphire Anchor Brooch with a long royal provenance through several generations of her husband’s family at the Wedding of Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg and Philippe Polack.

The diamond-set brooch is designed in the shape of an anchor, with two large cabochon sapphires placed at the flukes, the pointed lower arms of the anchor. The anchor is a classic motif in jewellery and has been particularly popular in royal and aristocratic jewellery collections.

The brooch was given by Grand Duke Sergei of Russia as a wedding gift to his sister-in-law-to-be, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, upon her marriage to Prince Louis of Battenberg in April 1884. At the time, Sergei was engaged to Victoria’s younger sister, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. Sergei and Elisabeth married two months later.

Princess Victoria of Battenberg wore the Anchor Brooch together with the Hesse Sapphire Necklace, which had belonged to her late mother, Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland, in a series of portraits.

The brooch was a wedding gift again in 1923. The Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, as Princess Victoria was known after the Battenbergs relinquished their German titles during the First World War, gave the brooch to her daughter, Lady Louise Mountbatten, on the occasion of her marriage to Gustaf Adolf, then Crown Prince of Sweden. The brooch was given together with several other jewels, including the Hesse Emerald Brooch and Cross.

Queen Louise was photographed wearing the Anchor Brooch on several occasions, although it was not among the jewels she wore most frequently.

At a later date, Queen Louise of Sweden, who remained childless throughout her life, passed the brooch to her niece, Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark, who became Margravine of Baden through her marriage..

The jewel has therefore remained within the wider family for more than a century, passing from Victoria, to her daughter Louise, and later to her niece Theodora. Last weekend, the brooch came back to light when Stéphanie, the current Margravine of Baden, chose to wear it for the wedding of Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg and Philippe Polack, bringing this historic family jewel back into view once again.

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