{{Short description|Crown made for King George IV of the United Kingdom}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[File:Elizabeth II Machin head sculpture (straightened & cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Relief on which the Machin series of UK stamps was based, with Elizabeth II wearing the diadem]] The '''Diamond Diadem''', historically known as the '''George IV State Diadem''', is a diadem that was made in 1820 for King George IV. The diadem has been worn by queens regnant and queens consort in procession to coronations and State Openings of Parliament. It has been featured in paintings and on stamps and currency.
==Origin== George IV commissioned Rundell & Bridge to make the diadem in 1820 at a cost of £8,216. The fee included a hire charge of £800 for the diamonds but there is no evidence they were ever returned to the jewellers.<ref>{{Royal Collection|31702|The Diamond Diadem}}</ref> These are the equivalent of £{{Inflation|UK-GDP|8216|1820|fmt=c|r=-5}} and £{{Inflation|UK-GDP|800|1820|fmt=c|r=-4}} in {{Inflation-year|UK-GDP}}, respectively.{{Inflation-fn|UK-GDP}} George IV wore the diadem over his velvet cap of maintenance in the procession to his coronation at Westminster Abbey.<ref name="AllisonRiddell1991">{{cite book|author1=Ronald Allison|author2=Sarah Riddell|title=The Royal Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kIoUAQAAIAAJ|year=1991|publisher=Macmillan Press|isbn=978-0-333-53810-4|page=173}}</ref>
==Description== {{external media<!-- Do not move to external links. Per template documentation: "This template is normally placed in the main body of the article, in the same place that you would normally have placed the image...if it had been available on Wikimedia Commons." --> | float = right | width = 230px | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmDAYqKiGZM Short video on YouTube by the Royal Collection Trust] (2022) }} The gold and silver frame, measuring {{convert|7.5|cm|in}} tall and {{convert|19|cm|in}} in diameter, is decorated with 1,333 diamonds weighing a total of 320 carats (64 g), including a four-carat yellow diamond in the front cross pattée.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Journal of Gemmology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0_zAAAAMAAJ|volume=23|year=1992|publisher=Gemmological Association of Great Britain|page=41}}</ref> Along the base are two strings of pearls. Originally, the upper string had 86 pearls and the lower 94, but they were changed to 81 and 88 in 1902.<ref name="Twining1960">{{cite book|author=Edward Francis Twining|title=A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XvIOAQAAMAAJ|year=1960|publisher=B. T. Batsford|page=169}}</ref> Instead of the heraldic fleurs-de-lis usually seen on British crowns, the diadem has four bouquets of roses, thistles and shamrocks, the floral symbols of England, Scotland and Ireland respectively,<ref name="Wie1999">{{cite book|author=Paul D. Van Wie|title=Image, History and Politics: The Coinage of Modern Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egIVS0rwFhUC&pg=PA63|year=1999|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-7618-1222-7|pages=63–64}}</ref> alternating with four crosses pattée around the top of its base.
==Use== It has been worn by every queen regnant and queen consort from Queen Adelaide, the wife of King William IV, to Queen Camilla, the wife of King Charles III. The diadem may have been reset with jewels from the royal collection for Queen Victoria,<ref>{{cite book|author=Sophie McConnell|title=Metropolitan Jewelry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pdyPGIM0rygC&pg=PA56|year=1991|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|location=New York|isbn=978-0-87099-616-0|page=56}}</ref> although the Royal Collection Trust suggests the original 1820 stones were discreetly purchased from Rundell Bridge and Rundell and remain in situ.<ref>"Normally the stones would have been returned to Rundells after the coronation, but in this case there is no sign that the delicately worked diamond sprays and crosses, a masterpiece of the new transparent style of setting, have been disturbed. Equally, there is no evidence that the King purchased the stones outright, so it could be that the bill was met by a discreet barter of old stones from George IV's extensive collection." https://www.rct.uk/collection/31702/the-diamond-diadem</ref> Queen Elizabeth II wore the diadem in the procession to her coronation in 1953,<ref name="Coolican1986">{{cite book|author=Don Coolican|title=Tribute to Her Majesty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8nH4lYwJxsAC|year=1986|publisher=Windward/Scott|isbn=978-0-7112-0437-9|page=273}}</ref> and she also wore it in the procession to and from the annual State Opening of Parliament.<ref name="Packard1981">{{cite book|author=Jerrold M. Packard|title=The Queen & Her Court: A Guide to the British Monarchy Today|url=https://archive.org/details/queenhercourta00pack|url-access=registration|year=1981|publisher=Scribner|isbn=978-0-684-16796-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/queenhercourta00pack/page/162 162]}}</ref>
<gallery widths="170" heights="210"> File:Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen.jpg|Queen Adelaide wearing the diadem File:Queen Victoria - Winterhalter 1859.jpg|Queen Victoria wearing the diadem File:Sir Samuel Luke Fildes (1843-1927) - Queen Alexandra (1844-1925) - RCIN 404554 - Royal Collection.jpg|Queen Alexandra wearing the diadem File:Queen Mary by William Llewellyn.jpg|Queen Mary wearing the diadem File:Queen Elizabeth II in Coronation Robes.jpg|Queen Elizabeth II wearing the diadem File:Queen Camilla (enthroned) 2024.jpg|Queen Camilla wearing the diadem </gallery>
==In art, stamps, and currency== {{multiple image | align = right | total_width = 220 | perrow = 2/2/1 | image1 = Canada $0.05 1992.jpg | image2 = 5d Definitive Royal Mail stamp. (1958-1970).jpg | image3 = Statue of Elizabeth II York Minster 03.jpg | image4 = La Reine - The Queen (2183763337).jpg | image5 = Ausztrál 1 fontos bankjegy (1954-1966).jpg | footer = The Diamond Diadem on various coins, stamps, and banknotes of Queen Elizabeth II }} The iconic piece of jewellery has featured in many portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, including the Portrait of Elizabeth II by Lucian Freud in 2001<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/the-queen-portraits-of-a-monarch/lucian-freud|title=The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch - Lucian Freud|publisher=Royal Collection Trust|accessdate=29 December 2015}}</ref> and one by Raphael Maklouf in 1984 that appears on Commonwealth coinage.
Arnold Machin designed an earlier portrait in the 1960s that was used on coins and the Machin series of postage stamps in the UK.<ref>{{cite book|title=Country Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AnJBAQAAIAAJ|volume=196|year=2002|page=161}}</ref>
The diadem has also featured on the coins and banknotes of most Commonwealth realms, and those of Anguilla, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras, British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Fiji, British Hong Kong, Malaya, Malta, Mauritius, British North Borneo, Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesia, St Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago.
==See also== *Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom *Coronation Crown of George IV *Jewels of Elizabeth II
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}} *{{Royal Collection|31702|The Diamond Diadem}}
{{Crowns|state=collapsed}}
Category:Jewellery in the Royal Collection of the United Kingdom Category:1820 works Category:George IV Category:Individual crowns