15cm (6in) x 15cm (6in)
Silver and silver gilt. A silver-gilt circlet with four strawberry leaves alternating with four silver balls slightly raised on points, the centre fitted with a crimson silk velvet cushion terminating a gold bullion wire tassel at its centre, the circlet trimmed with a band of ermine around the base. Silk lined interior fitted with gilt hair pins. Maker’s mark of Padget & Barham. Hallmarked 1936.
Made for the abandoned coronation of Edward VIII as King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth and as Emperor of India, that was due to take place in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937, this coronet was nevertheless worn on that same day at the coronation of George VI following Edward VIII’s abdication on 11 December 1936. At the pivotal moment when the Archbishop of Canterbury placed St. Edward’s Crown on the head of the new Sovereign, the coronet would have been raised on to the wearer’s head where it would have remained for the rest of the service. Coronation robes and coronets have been used on twelve occasions in the last 300 years. There were approximately thirty-nine Marquessates extant in 1937.