Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

An exhibition has just opened in London featuring 400 objects from the Royal Collection to celebrate Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s love of collecting and displaying artworks. The exhibition is also meant to dispel the image we have of Victoria as a dour widow for most of her life.
Approximately one-third of the objects on exhibit were gifts given to each other by the royal couple and include a suite of jewelry with an orange blossom motif.

Queen Victoria’s Orange Blossom Jewelry

The exhibition includes many photographs and formal portraits by Winterhalter who executed the majority of royal portraits. Victoria was the first monarch to live at Buckingham Palace and the couple loved to host costume balls. The exhibition includes one her most beautiful surviving dresdes designed for her by Eugene Lami for the Stuart Ball in 1851.

Prince Albert loved design which led to his organizing of the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. At the Exhibition the Directors of the East India Company presented Victoria with a selection of jewels from the Indian section of the exhibition, including the 352.5-carat Timur Ruby and three spinels. Victoria had the firm of Garrad set them into a necklace.

The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert was instituted by the Queen on February 10, 1862 after the Prince Consort’s death.
Victoria & Albert, Art and Love is at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace through October 31.

To view this collection on line please visit The Royal Collection webiste

Provided by Elyse Zorn Karlin, Editor Adornment Magazine, Co-Director Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts (ASJRA). ASJRA’s conference One More Time: Jewelry Fakes, Revivals, Recycling and Reproductions takes place May 15, 2010 in New York City (www.jewelryconference.com).