A small memento - sapphire ring, Queen Victoria's coronation gift to one of her train bearers

 

This sapphire and diamond ring is engraved inside the band with Queen Victoria's cypher and the date of the Coronation in 1838, and was given to one of her eight train bearers who assisted her on that momentous occasion. It no longer seems to be recorded to whom the particular ring was originally given, but it was added to the royal collection by Queen Mary in 1925. And while I haven't found any mention of this on the Royal Collection's website, on the inside of the ring, behind the central sapphire, there appears to be something of a translucent "window"... and would that be, to make the gift that much more personal, a tiny bit of the queen's hair behind?

Queen Victoria Receiving the Sacrament at her Coronation, 28 June 1838, by Charles Robert Leslie, 1838-39.

Charles Robert Leslie's painting shows the Queen receiving the Sacrament towards the latter part of her Coronation. Queen Victoria's half-sister Feodora, Princess of Leiningen, wrote to the Queen later that year that the moment depicted in the painting "was the most touching of the whole ceremony, and one that is always before me; human greatness bowing before greatness above, I saw many eyes that were filled with tears; and I shall never forget that picture."

Queen Victoria was delighted with the painting too. She thought "the group of my youthful trainbearers is excessively pretty.". She wrote to Princess Feodora that it was "the loveliest picture of the coronation you can imagine; it is to be for me, and is a great deal smaller than Hayter's picture [see below] …. He has got me so like … and all the others, he has got so like, I am charmed with it'. It was praised by contemporaries and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843.

Queen Victoria described her train bearers in her Journal, as "all dressed alike and beautifully" in white satin and silver tissue, with pink roses in their hair.

*

Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster, Abbey 28 June 1838’, by Sir George Hayter, 1839-40.

Sir George Hayter's painting captures the moment in the coronation when, after the crowning, "the people with loud and repeated shouts, will cry 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN': and immediately the Peers and Peeresses present will put on their Coronets" - in the queen's words, "a most beautiful and impressive moment." The queen is portrayed seated on the Coronation Chair, wearing the Imperial State Crown and holding in her right hand the Sceptre with the Cross and in her left the Sceptre with the Dove. 

Hayter was commissioned to record the scene less than a week before the coronation itself. The finished work depicts sixty-four of those participating or merely present during the ceremony, based on private sittings with the individuals in the two years following the event. The artist's family modelled the gowns and robes for him; his daughter Louisa modeled for the queen's hands.

*

The eight train bearers - who all seemed to find highly decorative - are nonetheless not terribly well represented in either of these coronation paintings. In Leslie's, only six appear - one almost entirely obscured - while in Hayter's a mere three make the cut.

*

The coronation day, from Queen Victoria's diary:

"I was awoke at four o'clock by the guns in the Park, and could not get much sleep afterwards on account of the noise of the people, bands, etc., etc. Got up at seven, feeling strong and well; the Park presented a curious spectacle, crowds of people up Constitution Hill, soldiers, Bands, etc.

"At ten I got into the State Coach with the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Albemarle and we began our Progress. It was a fine day, and the crowds of people exceeded what I have ever seen; many as there were the day I went to the City, it was nothing, nothing to the multitudes, the millions of my loyal subjects, who were assembled in every spot to witness the Procession. Their good humour and excessive loyalty was beyond everything, and I really cannot say how proud I feel to be the Queen of such a Nation. I was alarmed at times for fear that the people would be crushed and squeezed on account of the tremendous rush and pressure.

Detail from a commemorative panorama - over 3 metres (almost ten feet) long - showing the procession within Westminster Abbey and identifying the key figures.

"I reached the Abbey amid deafening cheers at a little after half-past eleven; I first went into a robing-room quite close to the entrance where I found my eight train-bearers: Lady Caroline Lennox, Lady Adelaide Paget, Lady Mary Talbot, Lady Fanny Cowper, Lady Wilhelmina Stanhope, Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, Lady Mary Grimston and Lady Louisa Jenkinson – all dressed alike and beautifully in white satin and silver tissue with wreaths of silver corn-ears in front, and a small one of pink roses around the plait behind, and pink roses in the trimmings of the dresses.

"Then followed all the various things; and last (of those things) the Crown being placed on my head – which was, I must own, a most beautiful impressive moment; all the Peers and Peeresses put on their coronets at the same instant. My excellent Lord Melbourne, who stood very close to me throughout the whole ceremony, was completely overcome at this moment, and very much affected; he gave me such a kind, and I may say fatherly look. The shouts, which were very great, the drums, the trumpets, the firing of the guns, all at the same instant, rendered the spectacle most imposing. The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the wrong finger, and the consequence was that I had the greatest difficulty to take it off again, which I at last did with great pain. At about half-past four I re-entered my carriage, the Crown on my head, and the Sceptre and Orb in my hands, and we proceeded the same way as we came – the crowds if possible having increased. The enthusiasm, affection, and loyalty were really touching, and I shall remember this day as the Proudest of my life! I came home at a little after six, really not feeling tired. At eight we dined."

Portraits of "Silence" - Sarah Sophia Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey

A miniature by Alfred Chalon, circa 1820s.

Sarah Sophia Child Villiers née Fane, Countess of Jersey (4 March 1785 – 26 January 1867, London), English noblewoman. The eldest daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, and Sarah Anne Child. Her mother was the only child of Robert Child, the principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co. Under the terms of his will, the Countess of Jersey was the primary legatee, and she not only inherited Osterley Park and other Child property, but became a senior partner of the bank; a very unusual situation for the time, she held the position for more than sixty years. At nineteen she married George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey. They had seven children together, all of them surviving into adulthood. Her husband's mother, Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, was one of the more notorious mistresses of King George IV when he was Prince of Wales. The younger Lady Jersey's own affairs, although conducted with discretion, were said to be numerous: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, was thought to be one of her lovers. She was one of the patronesses of Almack's, the most exclusive social club in London, and a leader of society during the Regency era. Though much admired for her many acts of kindness and generosity, she was also known for her affectations, her rudeness, and her incessant gossiping. In addition, she was given the nickname "Silence", the nickname being ironic since, famously, she almost never stopped talking. She was immortalized as Zenobia in Disraeli's novel "Endymion", Caroline Lamb ridiculed her in her roman à clef "Glenarvon" - Lady Jersey got her revenge by barring the author from Almack's, though she later relented - and, in the following century, she became a recurring character in the Regency novels of Georgette Heyer. She outlived her husband and six of her seven children, dying at the age of eighty-one.

A miniature attributed to John Linnell the Elder, circa 1804-15.

Small notebook with a miniature by Nicholas-François Dun, circa 1804-15.

The back of the notebook, containing a lock of the Countess' hair.

Lithographic illustration from a portrait by Alfred Chalon, circa 1820s.

Lithographic illustration from a portrait by Edmund Thomas Parris, circa 1820s.

Lithographic illustration from a portrait by James Holmes of 1834.

The original portrait by James Holmes, 1834.

Sketch by Sir George Hayter, 1819.

Queen Victoria at thirteen, copy after Sir George Hayter, circa 1866-70

Portrait of Princess Victoria of Kent (later Queen Victoria, Empress of India) with her spaniel Dash.

Princess Victoria of Kent - still more than four years away from becoming queen - sat for the original portrait between 29 January and 22 March of 1833. The resulting work was exhibited at the Royal Academy later that year, and was reproduced as a mezzotint.  It was painted for her uncle, Leopold I, King of the Belgians; in 1865 Queen Victoria asked him for a copy of the original, which was eventually completed by an unknown artist.

Windsor Castle is seen in the distance, and her beloved spaniel Dash is at her feet, playing with her dropped glove.  Princess Victoria was an only child and, living always among adults, she had few if any friends.  So this little dog, who she received the same year the portrait was painted, was famously dear to her; after her coronation ceremonies in 1838, she hurried back to Buckingham Palace so that she could give Dash his scheduled bath.  He died in 1840 and was buried at Windsor.  The inscription on his grave reads: "Here lies - DASH - The favourite spaniel of Her Majesty Queen Victoria - In his 10th year - His attachment was without selfishness - His playfulness without malice - His fidelity without deceit - READER - if you would live beloved and die regretted - profit by the example of - DASH".

Hayter's oil sketch.

***

Sir George Hayter (17 December 1792, London – 18 January 1871, London), English painter, specializing in individual and important group portraits. Soon after her accession in 1837, Queen Victoria appointed Hayter her Painter of History and Portrait.  He went on to paint the official state portrait of the new queen the following year, the large group of her coronation that same year, and that of her wedding in 1840.  In 1841 Queen Victoria appointed Hayter her Principal Painter in Ordinary and awarded him a knighthood the next year, though his royal favor was soon eclipsed by that of Edwin Landseer and Franz Winterhalter.