comprising of an oval shaped bullseye sardonyx, mounted within a beaded yellow gold border, applied with the initial ‘A’ beneath the crown of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha set with rose cut diamonds, mounted above a concealed locket compartment which reveals a glazed photographic portrait of Prince Albert (1819-1861).
The reverse inscribed “In remembrance of the beloved Prince. Dec 14th 1861. From VR.”
The stickpin was commissioned by Queen Victoria to present as a personal gift to members of her family and prominent figures of the household, following the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert shortly before Christmas in 1861.
She wrote after his death that her grief was “unbounded, dreadful, and I know not how to bear it.” She focused her intense sadness into acts of commemoration, presenting memorial jewels such as this stickpin. The sumptuousness of this pin, incorporating a locket compartment with a diamond set initial, suggests it would have been intended for a higher ranking recipient.
The surviving Royal ledgers at Garrard’s record the delivery of many memorial jewels ordered by Queen Victoria, which incorporated photographic portraits of Prince Albert or pieces of his hair. The portrait within the locket compartment of this stickpin was taken by Camille Silvy on 3rd July, 1861 and was the image that Queen Victoria chose to incorporate into the memorial jewels made immediately after Prince Albert’s death. It can be found in the centre of a pendant jewel presented by the Queen to the Countess of Caledon (d.1888), a Lady of the Bedchamber, as well as appearing in a stickpin which belonged to Lord George Lennox, now in The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (see M.46 & A-1984 ).