Queen Victoria’s Orange Blossom Jewellery
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Queen Victoria not only started the popularisation of the white wedding dress but also brides wearing orange blossoms. Orange blossoms have their links to wedding traditions through Greek and Roman mythology, where Gaia gifted a golden-appled orange tree to Hera. The physical use of the blossoms in bridal attire later gained popularity in ancient China as a symbol of fertility, spreading to Europe during the Crusades. It was only until the 1840's that fashionable brides incorporated the sweet-smelling blossoms into their bouquets, headdresses and gown trims.
On the 10th February 1840, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in St James's Palace. The Queen wore a white silk gown with her Turkish diamond suite, collar and badge (Great George) of the Order of the Garter and of course a spray of orange blossoms, a wreath of orange blossoms and sprigs of orange blossoms on her train.
By 1843 the trend for brides to wear orange blossoms had reached Paris, with the Queen noting in her diary 'I am so fond of, & a spray of large orange flower...good many leaves to it & 2 little oranges, This is now worn in...Paris. I do so love orange flowers' Victoria, Q. (1850). Sunday 10th February 1850. Queen victoria's journals - Princess Beatrice's copies (pp. 39-40])
One of the first gifts Prince Albert sent to the Queen as his fiancée was a gold and porcelain brooch. Prince Albert sent it from Wiesbaden where he had stopped to meet his father on his way back to Coburg after receiving the Queen's proposal. It is stored in a green leather box mounted with plaque engraved with inscription: "Sent to me by dear Albert from Wiesbaden. Novr. 1839".
Prince Albert continued to give the Queen orange blossom jewellery, another brooch and matching earrings in December 1845 and a headdress in February 1846 (on their anniversary), eventually creating a beautiful set, parts of which Victoria always wore on her wedding anniversary before widowhood.
Prince Albert had designed the headdress of porcelain orange blossoms, frosted gold leaves, and four green enamel oranges, which represented their four eldest children. Still surviving in the Royal Collection, the piece was made to match the pair of earrings and brooches that Albert had given to Victoria as previous gifts.
Queen Victoria was overjoyed with the gift and wrote in her journal - 'my beloved one gave me such a lovely unexpected present, a wreath, going right round the head, made to match the brooch & earrings, he gone me at Christmas. It is entirely his own design, & beautifully carried out. The leaves are of frosted gold, the orange blossoms of white porcelain & 4 little green enamel oranges, meant to represent our 4 Children. It is such a lovely wreath & such a dear kind thought of Albert's. Victoria, Q. (1846). Tuesday 10th February 1846. Queen victoria's journals - Princess Beatrice's copies (pp. 61-63)
Queen Victoria continued to wear this beautiful parure on her wedding anniversaries as well as Christenings up until her widowhood. The orange blossom set was placed in the ‘Albert Room’ at Windsor Castle after the Queen's death in 1901. This was the room in which Prince Albert had died in 1861 and the Queen left instructions for a specific list of personajewellery to be placed there and not passed on in the family.
The orange blossom parure was last displayed in 2019 as part of the ‘Victoria: Woman and Crown’ exhibition at Kensington Palace, which marked 200 years since the monarch’s birth.
The trend of brides wearing orange blossoms continued throughout the royal family with all of Queen Victoria's daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters and great granddaughters all wearing some form of orange blossoms on their wedding day. Later on even the bridesmaids wore orange blossoms. Queen Victoria's youngest child Princess Beatrice, wore a white lace dress and wreath of orange blossom as a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of Denmark on 10 March 1863.
Queen Elizabeth II also incorporated orange blossoms on her wedding dress - around the hem of the dress, "a border of orange blossom was appliqued with transparent tulle outlined in seed pearls and crystal.
Comments