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The Greater Gems in the Jewel House: King's State Crown

In Queen Victoria's State Crown this fine jewel occupied a prominent position in the front of the band just below the Black Prince's ruby. This pride of place it relinquished in favour of the great diamond, the Star of Africa, during the reign of Edward VII., and now occupies an exactly opposite setting at the back of the King's State Crown.* The Stuart sapphire is oval in shape, about one and a half inches in length, by one inch in breadth, and is set in a gold brooch. It has one or two blemishes, but is of good colour, and was evidently deemed of high value by the Stuarts. At one end has been drilled a hole, probably to introduce some attachment by which the stone could be worn as a pendant.

SAPPHIRE OF ST. EDWARD In the centre of the cross-patée on the top of the King's State Crown is a sapphire with a very old English association, which may have an older world history than the Black Prince's ruby, or the Koh-i-Nur. It is held to have been in the coronation ring of Edward the Confessor, who ascended the throne in 1042, twenty-four years before the Norman Conquest. How the stone and ring passed through the deplorable devastation of the Commonwealth is not clear, but a small * See p. 20. article of this sort might easily escape unnoticed, hidden as was the Ampulla in Westminster Abbey, or concealed during the storm by some devoted adherent of the Stuarts. It was held in the old days to have the magic powers of curing the cramp, and no doubt did so, assisted by implicit faith and when applied by the King himself. Faith has performed more wonderful miracles. From the present appearance of the stone and its cutting as a rose gem, it is judged that it was altered from its original shape and size in the reign of Charles II., much as we can judge of the exact period in which ancient stones were recut as brilliants by the date in which these processes were first introduced. This sapphire is a very fine stone of good colour and brilliancy, and, apart from its historic value, is a gem of more than ordinary merit. QUEEN ELIZABETH'S EARRINGS Hanging below the cross-patée in the King's State Crown are four great pearls, drop-shaped. These by tradition were once the earrings of Queen Elizabeth. There is no definite record of the fact, nor on the other hand is there any evidence of their arrival in the crown from elsewhere. A careful scrutiny has been made of such bills as exist, submitted by the court jewellers in succeeding reigns, and no record can be found of the provision of these four large and manifestly very costly pearls. Though therefore it is impossible to definitely state that they once belonged to Queen Elizabeth, it may be permissible to accede to a long standing Tower tradition, and allow that this is a probability. Being small and portable they, like the Ampulla and Spoon, and Edward the Confessors' sapphire, may easily have been escaped through the period of the Commonwealth, and with the Black Prince's ruby have again come into the hands of royalty. Historically impossible to verify, traditionally these four great pearls belonged to the Great Queen, and we of this generation are prepared to accept them on trust.