PREVIEW: JEWELLERY AND OBJECTS OF VERTU AUCTION 14 JUNE

When the Duchess of Norfolk decided to donate her unique personal Coronation gift from The Queen to charity in 1956, she was keen to avoid embarrassing publicity.
Now, a London auction house has discovered that she secured the help of a celebrated Australian cricketer, on an Ashes tour of England at the time, to get the job done.

Frances Noble, Head of Jewellery at Noonans Auctioneers in Mayfair, set about investigating what had happened to the brooch in the intervening 69 years since the Coronation when it was consigned for auction in June.

“The background story to the brooch has proved to be both surprising and fascinating,” she says.

Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk, famously stood in for Her Majesty during rehearsals for the Coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953. In gratitude for her service, the Queen presented her with one of seven matching diamond brooches made by Garrard & Co Ltd.

Her Majesty emphasised how important the Duchess’s support had been in a hand-written letter accompanying the brooch, which read:

Dear Lavinia,
I write to express my heartfelt thanks to you for standing in for me in the Abbey in the weeks leading up to my Coronation. It was extremely kind of you to be there to support me at such an important moment of one’s life, and it gave me such tremendous confidence to know
all was ready before the service. The Archbishop was very grateful for all your patient help and Mummy hopes that my understudy will be available when I am next ill in bed!!
I hope you will accept this small gift, which was Philip’s inspired idea, as an enduring reminder of my appreciation.
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth R.

Consigned to Noonans from Australia, the brooch came with a copy of a typed and signed letter, dated 8 February 1960, from Mr Anthony Elder, the Chairman of The British and Foreign Bible Society, addressed to Mr Edward Clark of Epping Gospel Church, New South Wales, Australia.

The letter confirmed that the ‘Coronation Diamond Pin’ was ‘donated to the Society in lieu of a monetary contribution by Her Grace the Duchess of Norfolk’. But it was what the letter stated next that proved intriguing.

It was not the Duchess herself who presented the society with the brooch but a ‘Mr Lindwall at Arundel on behalf of the Commonwealth Council’.

This turned out to be Ray Lindwall, M.B.E., the famous Australian cricketer, widely regarded as the greatest fast bowler of his time, who was on tour in England with the Australian cricket team for the 1956 Ashes tour.

It was during this tour that in April of that year the Australian national team played an exhibition match against the Duke of Norfolk’s XI in Arundel, Sussex – Arundel Castle is the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk.

At some point during the proceedings, the Duchess of Norfolk gave the brooch to Lindwall so that he could pass it on to The British and Foreign Bible Society via The Commonwealth Council.

The Duchess of Norfolk was well known for her charitable work, for which she was awarded a C.B.E. She did not convert to her husband’s religion of Roman Catholicism, but supported The British and Foreign Bible Society (a non-denominational Christian Bible Society) whose purpose was to make the bible available throughout the world.

Purchased as a gift for jeweller’s wife
Elder’s February 1960 letter confirmed the sale of the brooch to Mr Edward Clark, who was buying it as a gift for his wife, Louisa. Clark was a jeweller and manager at Hardy Brothers Jewellers in Sydney, Australia. (The firm of Hardy Brothers was founded in 1853 by the English jeweller John Hardy and are today the only jewellery business in Australia to hold a Royal Warrant). 

Edward Clark was also a significant benefactor of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the letter acknowledged his ‘substantial contribution’ towards the building of the new Commonwealth Headquarters of the Society.

The letter also makes it clear that his purchase solved a thorny problem for the society: the Duchess had stipulated that while the brooch could be sold for the benefit of the society, “her donation [should] not be made publicly known as it may cause embarrassment”.

When Louisa Clark died in 1976, the brooch was passed down through the family.

The letter also refers to the brooch as ‘the prototype’ for six other brooches presented to Her Majesty’s Maids of Honour, who attended her at the Coronation and assisted with her Robe of State, a 5.5 metre long hand-woven silk velvet cloak lined with Canadian ermine.

The Duke of Norfolk, as hereditary Earl Marshal, organised the Coronation, while during the Coronation, Lavinia was one of four duchesses who held the canopy above the Queen during the Anointing ceremony.

Designed in the form of the Monarch’s cypher, ER, the brooch is being offered in Noonans’ 14 June Jewellery and Objects of Vertu auction, where the estimate is £4,000-£6,000.

The reverse is engraved ‘Platinum’ and in facsimile script ‘With grateful thanks’, and the brooch is contained in a Garrard & Co. Ltd red leather case, with the Royal cypher in gilt to the hinged lid.

Frances Noble says: “This precious gift has the rare distinction of combining the deeply personal with the formal in marking one of the most important historic occasions of the past century, as Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee reminds us.

“It also gives a touching insight into the bond between the Royal couple, as well as that between the Queen and the Duchess of Norfolk.”


Caption: Formerly the property of Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk, this personal Coronation gift of thanks from Her Majesty the Queen, inspired by an idea of the Duke of Edinburgh, will be offered in Noonans' 14 June Jewellery and Objects of Vertu auction with an estimate of £4,000-£6,000.