Orders, Decorations and Medals

The extremely rare badge of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert bestowed upon Blanche Julia, Dowager Countess of Mayo, upon her appointment as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria in 1872

The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 3rd Class badge (1880-1902) [2nd Class when awarded in 1872], comprising a shell cameo of the conjoined busts of Queen Victoria and Prince Consort, signed J. Ronca of Chelsea, surrounded by a gold border set with twenty half pearls and four diamonds, surmounted by gold and enamel crown set with rubies, emeralds and diamonds, small gold loop for suspension, mounted on Lady’s bow as worn, contained in a later case with gold blocked inscription, minor scratches to cameo, otherwise extremely fine and of the highest rarity £12000-15000

Provenance: Sotheby March 1995.

The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1862 as a private family award to commemorate Prince Albert. A second class was added in 1864, and the Order was extended to four classes in March 1880, but limited to the Sovereign and forty-five ladies. The first two classes were reserved for Royal Ladies [the second class being specifically for those of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters who were not British princesses], the third class for the Mistress of the Robes and Ladies of the Bedchamber, and the fourth class for Women of the Bedchamber. The fourth class badge did not have a cameo portrait but comprised the entwined ciphers of VR and A, set with brilliants and half-pearls, surmounted by a gold and enamel crown set in diamonds. The Order ceased to exist in May 1902, but its members survived into the present reign. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, the last surviving member of the 1st Class, died in 1962, and Queen Victoria’s last surviving granddaughter, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the last surviving recipient of the 2nd Class, died in 1981.

Approximately 34 Ladies were awarded the 2nd Class (3rd Class from 1880) of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert during the period of its existence from 1862 until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Insignia from this Order very rarely comes on the market and some price comparisons from three decades ago make surprising reading. A 3rd Class badge sold at Sotheby in June 1973 for £4200, whilst in the same sale the Victoria Cross group to Colonel J. C. Daunt sold for £2300 [Magor Collection, DNW July 2003, £126,500]. Another 3rd Class badge was sold by Sotheby in February 1975 for £6500, on which occasion the Victoria Cross group to Major John Cook realised £3700 [Ritchie Collection, DNW September 2004, £94,300].

The Honourable Blanche Julia Wyndham was born on 21 November 1826, daughter of the 1st Baron Leconfield. She married in 1848 to the 6th Early of Mayo, later Viceroy of India, who was assassinated in February 1872. She was appointed to the 2nd Class of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert on 11 May 1872, to coincide with her appointment as a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen. She became an Extra Lady of the Bedchamber in 1874 and remained as such until the Queen’s death in 1901. In 1878, she was appointed one of the founding Companions of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, established to commemorate the Queen becoming Empress of India (see Lot 524). The Dowager Countess of Mayo died on 31 January 1918.