Queen Victoria’s sapphire and diamond coronet

Designed by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s sapphire and diamond coronet was one of the most important jewels of the young queen. In 1842 she wore it in a famous portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. In 1866, on the first occasion she felt able to face the ordeal of the Opening of Parliament after Albert’s death, she chose to wear the coronet he had designed for her. The coronet’s permanent display in our Jewellery Galleries marks the bicentenary of the births in 1819 of Albert and Victoria. Queen Victoria’s coronet has been purchased through the generosity of William and Judith Bollinger, and their sons, Douglas and James, as a gift to the Nation and the Commonwealth.