Prince Albert's Brooch
Prince Albert's Brooch . The day before their wedding in 1840, Prince Albert gave his bride-to-be a gift. The gift was a sapphire and diamond brooch set in gold. In her diary, Victoria wrote that Albert had given her ~ “A splendid brooch, a large sapphire set round with diamonds, which is really quite beautiful.” Victoria so loved her new brooch, that she wore it on her wedding gown the following day. She paired it with a demi-parure of jewels made from diamonds that had been given to her by the Sultan of Turkey. For the next twenty years, Victoria wore the sapphire brooch regularly. But as was the case with so many of Victoria’s jewels, the brooch was rarely worn after Albert’s death in 1861. Victoria always retained a clear sense of the brooch’s significance, by designating it as an heirloom of the crown, in her will. Queen Alexandra wore the brooch, along with virtually every other jewel in the kingdom, pinned to her gown at her coronation i...