Object of the Day: A Bust of Queen Victoria

For quite some time, I’ve been wanting an antique bust of Queen Victoria to add to my collection of Royal memorabilia. This weekend, she was finally discovered!


This parian figure of Queen Victoria dates sometime between her Golden and Diamond Jubilees (1887-1897) and shows the monarch in her older days—as the figure of the widow that most of us associate with her.

Finely cast with exquisite detail, the figure seems to be based on several portraits painted of the Queen around this time period. She wears her usual costume accompanied by the impressive diamond necklace that she often wore later in life for state occasions.

The reverse of the figure is incised simply, "Victoria."  No further explanation was needed. 

When I got the figure home and placed her in the spot where I’d envisioned such a bust to go, she seemed perfectly content as if she’d always been there. Now, she surveys a new empire with the very same countenance with which she would have observed her own, a century ago.