Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 3rd Class badge (1880-1902), shell cameo of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in gold frame surrounded by twenty half-pearls and four diamonds, surmounted by gold and enamel crown set with emeralds, rubies and diamonds, the cameo signed Ronca for J. Ronca of Chelsea, extremely fine and extremely rare
£18000-22000

The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1862 as a private family award to commemorate Prince Albert. 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.