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I t’s made of gold, silver and platinum, with a purple velvet cap and ermine band. It weighs 2.3lbs (1.06kg) and contains 2,868 diamonds in silver mounts. It holds a further treasury of coloured stones in gold mounts, including 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls and 5 rubies. It sits under ceremonial armed guard in the Tower of London and has been seen by billions worldwide, taking pride of place at Coronations, State occasions and Royal funerals. It is immediately recognisable as the overarching statement of historical power, the embodiment of Britain’s heritage. It has even been featured dramatically in the opening credits of every episode of the Netflix series The Crown – as the titular symbol of the British monarchy. It is, of course, the Imperial State Crown.
The centrepiece of the world’s most famous set of Crown Jewels, the Imperial State Crown has been the ultimate icon of British sovereignty since the 15th century. Containing such priceless gems as St Edward’s Sapphire, set in the topmost cross (reputed to have been worn by St Edward the Confessor [1042-66] and discovered in his tomb in 1163) and the 104-carat Stuart Sapphire (traditionally thought to have been smuggled by James II when he fled England in December 1688), it is British history incarnate.
Ceremonially placed atop the head of a new monarch at the close of the Coronation ceremony (replacing the St Edwards Crown used during the ritual), it is only worn on significant State occasions until finally, it is placed on the monarch’s coffin – before being passed to the next in line of succession for a new cycle in one of the Kingdom’s most hallowed traditions.
In Sotheby’s Royal and Noble auction, 5-17 January, an extraordinary piece of history comes to market in the form of two fragments from the Imperial State Crown itself. In 1953, Harold Philip Goodship was foreman diamond mounter to the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company, Crown Jewellers, who were commissioned to prepare the Crown for Elizabeth II’s Coronation, on behalf of Garrard & Co Jewellers. The silver pieces that Goodship removed from the Crown during its resizing are now being offered for sale from this royal jeweller’s personal collection, for the very first time. The unique lot also contains ephemera, memorabilia, notes from a BBC Radio broadcast about the Crown’s preparation and a Coronation medal awarded to Goodship for his meticulous work.
‘To my knowledge this is the only time part of the Crown Jewels have ever come up for at auction.’
‘To my knowledge,’ says Kristian Spofforth, Sotheby’s Head of UK Jewellery, ‘this is the only time part of the Crown Jewels have ever come up for at auction. The British crown jewels are probably the most significant and most important crown jewels in the world – and have been for the last thousand years.’
The Imperial State Crown in its modern form was created for Queen Victoria’s Coronation in 1838 by then-Crown Jewellers Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. Over the course of 99 years, its fixtures and structure grew perilously wobbly, necessitating a new model being created for King George VI’s Coronation in May 1937 by Garrard & Co, who had assumed the role of Crown Jewellers. After King George VI’s death in 1952, the Crown was placed on his coffin during the funeral procession across London to Westminster Abbey – it was the first time television cameras had filmed such an event, beaming images of the Imperial State Crown on the coffin across the nation.
In order to prepare the Crown for Elizabeth II’s 1953 Coronation, master jeweller Harold Goodship, with fellow artisan Peter Williment, took on the daunting task of resizing the Imperial State Crown’s circlet to fit the new queen, narrowing the inner headband and lowering its arches by an inch (2.5 cm).
Speaking to a BBC radio programme ahead of the procedure (the transcript of which is included in this lot), Goodship explained what he would be doing. ‘The reason for remodelling now is purely that the Crown should fit Her Majesty,’ he says. ‘There’s a jewelled band where it fits over the brow of the Sovereign. Mounted on it are four fleur-de-lis and four Maltese crosses, and on top of these crosses spring four jewelled arches of pearls and diamonds, fashioned as oak leaves and acorns, a design dating back to the days of Charles II.’
Goodship went on to explain how the ‘intricate and highly skilled operation’ would involve removing the jewelled arches and crosses before removing all the jewels – ‘diamonds and pearls, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, hundreds of them’. He would end up cutting the headband into four pieces with a small jewellers’ fretsaw, delicately altering the shape of the headband by about an inch, before soldering the four pieces back together and painstakingly resetting the jewels.
As a result of this intricate, delicate surgery, two silver pieces were removed from the Crown and were later gifted to Goodship in recognition of his work, along with a Coronation medal (also included in the lot).
‘It’s the chance to own something that is the divine right of kings. It’s the chance to own something that is a big part of Britain.’
‘It’s the chance to own something that is the divine right of kings’, reflects Hope Francis, Associate Cataloguer for Jewellery at Sotheby’s. ‘It’s the symbol that God has given them this power it’s a change in role for these pieces. It’s the chance to own something that is a big part of Britain’.
Harold Goodship himself signed off his radio broadcast with characteristically humbled words. ‘More than once I’ve been asked what it’s like to hold this wonderful emblem in one’s hands. Well, it’s hard to give an adequate comparison with any other event – it is always a great moment of pride to feel one is holding what is after all, the emblem that binds together the British Commonwealth and Empire’.
Royal memorabilia from the Imperial State Crown is on view in our New Bond Street galleries, 15-17 January 2024
Banner image: The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II with the Imperial State Crown resting on top is carried by the Bearer Party as it departs Westminster Abbey during the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on September 19, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)
