Measurements: 17mm x 55mm
Gold set with three small diamonds in original fitted case marked ‘Visit of / Prince of Wales / C.W.S., London / March 7th 1924’. The Co-operative Wholesale Society in London’s East End was visited by Edward, Prince of Wales on 7 March 1924. He was accompanied by Socialist Ramsay Macdonald and Conservative Stanley Baldwin - the former having replaced the latter as Prime Minister two months earlier.
The C.W.S. was perceived as the best example of a consumer purchasing co-operative as envisaged by French economist and theorist Charles Gide (1847-1932). It was also the predecessor of the Co-Operative Group that was rocked by scandal in November 2013. Source: Redfern, P. (1938) ‘The New History of the C. W. S.’, J. M. Dent, London.