A truly lovely sapphire and diamond coronet once owned by Queen Victoria was designed and made for her by her beloved husband Prince Albert and gifted to the queen in 1840 the year of their wedding. It now safely sits in the Victoria and Albert Museum on display for the world to admire, however this delicate piece of fine jewellery, may have been lost for ever.
After the premature death of Albert in 1862, Victoria went into mourning. When she next re-opened parliament, instead of wearing her stately crown, she wore the beautiful coronet. We can only imagine how this symbolic gesture of wearing a very personal piece must have meant to her and to anyone who knew of the meaning behind it.
Victoria later gifted the lovely piece to her family and it was then later owned by the Earl of Harwood’s family. A purchaser bought it in 2000 and tried taking it out of UK. Luckily the fortunate foreign owner was offered a princely sum for the love token and a cool $6 million saw to it that the coronet remained in Britain.