Victorian Collar and locket BM 1881

The Victorian Sterling Silver with Rose Gold Collar and Locket Hallmarked BM 1881 is a stunning antique piece and extremely rare and collectable, come and view it in store today!

Named after the reign of Queen Victoria, this style of jewellery was highly personal to the beloved queen, who was a style-setting icon of her time.

With a reign that spanned over 60 years, Queen Victoria was hugely influential in the history of jewellery design. The rise of Britain’s Middle Class after the Industrial Revolution meant that, for the first time, common people could afford to purchase jewellery.

A collier is a short or long necklace. The word “collier”, from the French ‘around the neck’ or ‘collar’, is often used to describe more exclusive or ornated necklaces. A collier can be both simpler with single-row stones or pearls, but it can also be a bolder statement necklace.

Lockets have accrued both utilitarian and aesthetic value over the centuries. Whether carrying a droplet of perfume, locks of hair or even poison, you will be surprised to know that for much of locket’s history, they weren’t always jewels of amorous devotion

Queen Victoria was known to always wear a locket of Prince Albert around her neck, especially after he passed away. And, the Queen was gifted a locket charm bracelet, with eight lockets all with individual portraits of her children.

Like most jewels of the time, antique Victorian Lockets followed the fashions of the royal family, firmly cementing the locket as a must-have item in the 19th century and beyond.

Wealthy families would commission antique four picture lockets, also known as family lockets, which would neatly open up to reveal multiple frames. These lockets could take the form of books or orbs, with the more expensive kinds bedecked in engravings.