brooch;
medal
- Museum number
- 1978,1002.1178
- Description
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Brooch with ten silver beads and scrollwork uniting eight medals struck in silver with portraits of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children: Albert, Louisa, Alfred, Victoria, Helena and Alice. The medals are inscribed on the reverse.
- Production date
- 1849 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Height: 4.80 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift (Gere et al 1984) no 363:
The youngest child represented is Louisa, born 1848, so the brooch is likely to have been made before the birth of Prince Arthur in 1850.
The medallist responsible for this set of medallions of the six royal children with their parents is unidentified. It dates from c. 1849. Queen Victoria commissioned William Wyon to make an official set of portrait medals of the six eldest royal children in 1850. The medals, including one of Prince Arthur, added after his birth in May 1850, were struck in time to be shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition, after William Wyon’s death by his son Leonard who had completed the commission (Royal Collection, RCIN 55342). The medallions of the children in this souvenir brooch differ from the Wyon portraits in details of hairstyle; the standard profile from the ‘Gothic’ crown piece issued in the English coinage in 1841 is used for Queen Victoria’s medallion (Charlotte Gere).
- Location
- On display (G47/dc13/p2/no10)
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1978,1002.1178