A PRINCESS'S SILVER-GILT CORONET OR CIRCLET, WORN AT THE CORONATION OF KING GEORGE II AND QUEEN CAROLINE, WESTMINSTER, 11 OCTOBER 1727, Benjamin Pyne, London, 1727

cast with four foliate fleurs de lys alternating with four similar crosses above a matted band decorated at intervals with cartouches between corded borders, set later with an emerald, garnets, carbuncles, turquoises and other semi-precious stones, in contemporary gilt-tooled leather-covered case

Overall condition and gilding good, marks good with the exception of the maker's mark which isn't well stuck and is rather scratched. One of the crosses had had its top arm shaped off and has been repaired with an applied backing plate. The case is a little distressed and has been restored with later handle.
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It is believed that this coronet or circlet is one of those used at the coronation of George II and Queen Caroline by their eldest daughters, the princesses Anne (the Princess Royal, afterwards the Princess of Orange, 1709-1759), Amelia Sophia Eleanora (1711-1786) and Caroline Elizabeth (1713-1757).

The death of George I at Osnabrück on 22 June 1727 was followed by a flurry of activity in London in preparation for the coronation of his son and successor, George Augustus (George II, 1683-1760) and his wife, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1683-1737), which took place at Westminster Abbey on 11 October 1727.

Among the surviving documents relating to this occasion is a warrant issued on 8 September 1727 on behalf of the King by Talbot, Earl of Sussex (1690-1731) in his capacity as Deputy Earl Marshal, in which he gave instructions to James Brudenell (d. 1746), Master of the Jewel Office to 'forthwith prepare for the Princess Royall, her Sisters Amelia Sophia Elianora, and Elizabeth Carolina, and for each of them a Coronet composed of Crosses and Fleurs d Lis without any Archs, of the fashion with the Coronets appointed for the immediate younger Sons of the Crowne by a Warrant of King Charles the Second bearing date the 19^th day of Febry in the thirteenth year of his Reign, which Coronetts you are to prepare and adorn them respectively with Jewels that they may be worn at the ensuing Coronation, and that you likewise prepare for each of the abovenamed Princesses a Circle [circlet] likewise to be adorned with Jewels to be worn by them in the Procession from Westminster Hall to the Abby. . . .' (National Archives, LC 5/109, p. 422. See also LC 5/109, pp. 409-410, LC 9/47, pp. 261-262, and LC 5/114, for loan of diamonds, &c, and settlement of account).

A further warrant from Sussex to Brudenell, dated 19 September 1727, 'Commands that you forthwith cause to be prepared . . . six caps of purple velvet for the three Circlets and the three Coronets of the Princess Royal her sisters Amelia Sophia Elianora and Eliz Carolina against the ensuing Coronation . . . .' (National Archives, LC 5/109, p. 425). The accounts also include, 'To the Casemaker for Cases for the Crowns Scepters  Coronetss &c as also for all the Regalia in the tower, and for sevl pieces of plate [£] 148 0 0 / To the Cap Maker for sevl  purple & Crimson velvet Caps for their Majestys Crowns Circlets & Coronets for the young Princesses, and d[itt]o The Furrier for Ermine &c for the same [£]70 0 0' (National Archives, LC 9/47, p. 262).

In the official description of the coronation, printed in The London Gazette, 10-14 October 1727, we are told that 'Before Twelve of the Clock the Procession was begun on Foot from the [Westminster] Hall to the Abbey of Westminster upon a Way raised for that Purpose, floored with Boards, covered with blue Cloth, and railed on each Side . . . .' Some way behind the 'King's Herb Woman, with her Maid Servants, strewing sweet Herbs, &c.,' came the Queen, supported by the Bishops of Winchester and London, 'in Her Royal Robes of Purple Velvet richly Furr'd with Ermin, having a Circle of Gold set with large Jewels upon Her Majesty's Head . . . Her Majesty's Train supported by the Princess Royal, and the Pricesses Amelia and Carolina, in Purple Robes of State, with Circles on their Heads . . .' They were followed by three young aristocrats, Henry Brydges, Marquess of Carnarvon (1708-1771), Thomas Hay, Viscount Dupplin (1710-1787) and George Legge, Viscount Lewisham (1705?-1732), each bearing one of the Princess's coronets.

Although this present coronet or circlet bears the maker's mark of Benjamin Pyne (1654-1732), it, together with all the other official goldsmiths' work used at the 1727 coronation, including refurbishments to the regalia, the loan of diamonds and the provision of new plate, enamelling, gilding, &c, was handled by the principal Goldsmith to the King, John Tysoe (d. 1755) of Lombard Street. As Arthur Grimwade points out (London Goldsmiths, p. 635), Pyne had had a long and successful career, culminating in his election in 1725 at the age of 71 to the position of Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company. Only two years later, however, at the time of George II's coronation, Pyne appears to have been slipping into debt, so much so that following his death in 1732 his daughters, Mary and Ann, were obliged to apply to the Company for relief. 
Under the circumstances it might seem perverse of Tysoe to have arranged for Pyne to fulfil such a significant order were it not for the fact that he (Pyne) had been one of the subordinate Goldsmiths to the King for the coronation of George I in 1714. Such an honour is hardly surprising for, as Grimwade reminds us, even by the end of the 17^th Century Pyne 'was obviously, from his surviving work, in the front rank of London goldsmiths.' Also, in his survey of Pyne's work, Timothy Schroder (British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum, 2009, vol. 3, pp. 1260-1261) notes that his pieces were among 'the grandest surviving plate of the period' and that he was also 'the leading maker of civic maces of his generation.' This last fact is of particular interest because Pyne's parcel-gilt silver mace of the Court Leet of St. Andrew, Holborn, made in 1694/95 (Victoria & Albert Museum, no. 808-1897) and the present coronet or circlet have crosses and fleurs de lys of the same design and which were clearly cast from the same patterns (moulds). The Court Leet mace's 'crown' and this present 1727 coronet or circlet differ only in the assembly of the castings: the crosses and fleurs de lys of the first are set vertically and those of the second at a slight angle. It might be argued that the second might originally, like the first, have been a mace head but this suggestion is negated by the presence of its collets for jewels and the survival of its original tooled leather case. Furthermore, the date of this coronet or circlet coincides with the coronation of George II, preparations for which were carried out in a great hurry and for which there would have been little time to create new designs. With his wealth of experience and expertise behind him and with access to his old patterns, it was logical that Pyne, even in the evening of his working life, should have been included among the suppliers on this important occasion.