Incredible Royal Jewels of the Edwardians Will Be Displayed at Buckingham Palace

Last week, the Royal Collection Trust unveiled some exciting details about next year’s planned exhibitions, including a particularly glamorous presentation devoted to the Edwardians. The Buckingham Palace exhibition will feature hundreds of pieces from that era, including some special pieces of royal jewelry.

The Edwardians: Age of Elegance will open at the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace on April 11, 2025. The exhibition focuses on two of the most important royal couples from the era, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and King George V and Queen Mary (who were then the Prince and Princess of Wales). Press materials share that this will be the first Royal Collection Trust exhibition ever to explore the Edwardian era. The exhibition will bring together more than 300 items–almost half on display for the first time–including fashion, jewelry, paintings, photographs, books, sculpture and ceramics.

The curator of the exhibition, Kathryn Jones, notes, “The Edwardian era is seen as a golden age of style and glamour, which indeed it was, but there is so much more to discover beneath the surface. This was a period of transition, with Britain poised on the brink of the modern age and Europe edging towards war. Our royal couples lived lavish, sociable, fast-paced lives, embracing new trends and technologies. Yet in their collecting we also see a need to retain tradition and record the rapidly changing world around them, as if to preserve a fading way of life. The outbreak of World War I shattered their world, marking the end of an age and forever changing the face of monarchy.”

Per the press release, the displays at the King’s Gallery will “evoke the fashionably cluttered interiors of the royal couples’ private residences at Marlborough House and Sandringham House, where decorative objects and family photographs covered every surface.” I’ve got a closer look today at a few of the highlights that I think will be particularly interesting to all of you, including remarkable royal jewels and portraits that catalogue the way those pieces were worn.

One of the most unique royal jewels included in the exhibition is Queen Alexandra’s Dagmar Necklace. The jewel was made by the Danish jeweler Julius Dideriksen in 1863, the year that Alexandra married the future King Edward VII. The elaborate necklace was a wedding present to Queen Alexandra from King Frederik VII of Denmark, who had chosen Alexandra’s father to be his successor. The large necklace is made of diamonds and pearls set in gold, and in its complete form, it features a large Byzantine cross pendant.

The pendant is a replica of the famous Dagmar Cross, an 11th century reliquary that is thought to have belonged either to Queen Dagmar, the first wife of King Valdemar II of Denmark, or her sister-in-law, Queen Rikissa of Sweden. The original Dagmar Cross is part of the collection of the National Museum of Denmark, and it has become commonplace for young Danish women to receive their own replicas of the cross pendant to celebrate baptisms or confirmations. Queen Alexandra’s necklace was worn on a few occasions by Queen Elizabeth II, who always chose to wear it without the Dagmar Cross pendant.

A special royal necklace that belonged to Alexandra’s daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, is being displayed to the public for the first time as part of the exhibition. The Love Trophy Collar was made by Garrard in 1901 using diamonds taken from pieces of jewelry owned by May’s grandmother (Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, later the Duchess of Cambridge) and her aunt (Princess Augusta of Cambridge, later the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz). Those gemstones were set in gold in a necklace that Hugh Roberts describes as a “delicately constructed collar, in the Louis XVI style.” 

Each “panel” of the Love Trophy Collar features a specific set of symbolic design elements—the “love trophies” referenced in the piece’s name. The center of the each panel features a burning torch and a quiver of arrows crossed with an archer’s bow, with clear references to Cupid, the god of love. This “love trophy” is surrounded by a wreath of laurel and suspended from a diamond ribbon tied in a bow. The necklace fell out of fashion soon after it was made, and though it was subsequently inherited by the Queen Mother, Elizabeth II, and now Charles III, it hasn’t been worn in public since Queen Mary owned it. (I’m hoping that the present Princess of Wales will give it a try one of these days.)

The exhibition also features a piece of jewelry given by Queen Alexandra to her husband. As part of a section of the exhibition documenting the global voyages of the royal couples, visitors “will see items from their travels on five continents, including an Egyptian scarab brooch given to Alexandra by Edward following his tour of the Middle East in 1863.” Scarab and beetle jewelry was fashionable during the Edwardian period. Other interesting examples include the scarab necklace that belonged to Princess Margaret of Connaught and the beetle parure made for Castalia, Countess Granville.

There are also plenty of objets d’art on display to reflect that cluttered opulence that was such a trademark of the Edwardians. The royals of the period turned to important jewelers to make even the most mundane objects for their everyday use. This crystal pencil case, adorned with diamonds and rubies, was made by Cartier. Like the Love Trophy Collar, the pencil case is on public display for the first time as part of the exhibition.

There’s also another spectacular jeweled object on show that may be more familiar to collectors and jewelry lovers. This blue enamel cigarette case, which features a diamond-encrusted snake biting its own tail, was made by Fabergé. The Edwardian-era royals in Britain were introduced to Fabergé’s designs by Queen Alexandra’s sister, Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, and they became such important customers that the firm ended up opening a London branch in 1903.

But this case, which has been shown in numerous exhibitions and publications, was a gift to Edward VII from another woman: his mistress, Alice Keppel, who is also the great-grandmother of Queen Camilla. Queen Alexandra returned the case to Mrs. Keppel after the King’s death in 1910. It came back into royal hands in 1936, when Alice gave it to Queen Mary, and it’s been in the Royal Collection ever since.

The exhibition also showcases important paintings and portraits from the period, including several showing royal ladies wearing fabulous jewels. This famous portrait of Queen Alexandra, painted by the French artist François Flameng in 1908, shows her sitting in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. She wears Queen Victoria’s Small Diamond Crown with her own collier résille necklace, made by Cartier in 1904. A long strand of pearls is suspended from the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, worn on her bodice in its brooch setting. The Royal Collection Trust calls the picture “one the highlights of early 20th century royal portraiture.”

Also on display is the grand state portrait of Queen Mary, painted by Sir William Samuel Henry Llewellyn after the 1911 coronation. Mary wears her coronation gown with many of the same jewels she wore for the ceremony itself, including the Coronation Necklace, the enormous Cockade Ornament, and Queen Victoria’s Diamond Bow Brooches. Her bracelets feature clasps with the royal cyphers of King William IV and Queen Adelaide in diamonds on a blue enamel background. Her coronation crown rests beside her, and for the portrait, she has added the Diamond Diadem.

Paintings of other British royal family members from the era are included in the exhibition as well. Here’s John Singer Sargent’s portrait of the Duchess of Connaught, which was finished in 1908. In the image, Louise wears classic pearls and a jeweled brooch, as well as the gold bangle bracelets that have become signature jewels of her royal descendants in Scandinavia. Though the portrait was painted during the Edwardian era, the sash and badge that Louise is wearing in the portrait, insignia of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, come from the previous royal reign.

Another prominent Edwardian portrait artist, Philip de László, is represented as part of the exhibition as well. His 1907 painting of Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, a great-niece of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, is included in the portrait display. Her son, Prince Philip, married Queen Elizabeth II, making her the grandmother of the present King.

The Edwardians: Age of Elegance will open to visitors at the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London on April 11, 2025, and the exhibition will run through November 23, 2025. The King’s Gallery is open Thursday to Monday and closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with the exception of July 15-August 27, when it is open seven days a week. More visitor and ticketing information can be found via the Royal Collection Trust website.