Prince Louis of Hesse, son of Charles, Prince of Hesse, and Elisabeth, third daughter of Prince William of Prussia, succeeded his uncle, Louis III, as Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, in 1877.
He married, in 1862, Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland, the second daughter of Queen Victoria.
On her marriage the Princess Alice received some costly royal presents, including a pearl and diamond brooch, with pearl pendant, from Messrs. Hancock’s, a royal gift of Her Majesty The Queen.
In 1867 the Hereditary Grand Duchess Alice, was painted by Winterhalter, wearing the pearl and diamond cluster brooch as pendant on her neck on a black velvet ribbon.
The pearl brooch-pendant, with detachable natural white pearl drop suspended from a two-stone diamond line to the pearl surmount within twin old mine-cut diamond surround of 15 large old mine diamonds and 15 smaller diamonds. Mounted in silver and gold 5,8cm long, one of the wedding gifts from her mother.
A second pearl cluster brooch is seen in lower part, the natural white pearl drop suspended from a diamond two-stone line to the old mine-cut diamond and pearl cluster mounted in silver and gold, made ca 1870, 5 cm long, which was later also in the possession of the Marquess of Milford-Heaven.
And matching earrings with pearl and diamond clusters. Each a two stone diamond pearl cluster, mounted in silver and gold made in 1860-1870, a later gift from Queen Victoria.
In her hair, the Hereditary Grand Duchess Alice wears a set of five large amazing 6 ray pearl and diamond stars like a tiara , probably part of a set of nine pearl and diamonds stars (later worne in the the Hesse Star Tiara).
Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse is in evening dress with the badges of the Orders of Victoria and Albert and the Order of Louise of Prussia on her shoulder facing the viewer.
The Victoria and Albert order was given to her on her confirmation in 1854.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert presented her with a cameo showing their jugate heads derived from the 1851 Great Exhibition medal by William Wyon. The cameo was surrounded by diamonds and surmounted by a crown, to be worn as an order pinned to a white moiré ribbon.
This gift was repeated upon the occasion of Princess Alice’s confirmation three years later. The badges supplied by Garrards were furnished with cameos cut by Tommaso Saulini, apparently commissioned through John Gibson, the Rome-based sculptor of whom the Queen and Prince were patrons. While no evidence has yet been found to confirm it, the likelihood is that the design of the badges was the Prince’s. Both he and the Queen were closely involved and interested in the practicalities of their manufacture. The movement of the cameos from Rome was not easy: they were delivered via the diplomatic bag of the French Ambassador in Rome to the British Ambassador in Paris, from where they were despatched to London.
“Amongst others she got our Order which I have established as a Family Order called the “Victoria & Albert””(Journal, 17 April 1862). The Queen had turned the family gift into an Order in memory of her late husband, with its date of foundation her twenty-second wedding anniversary, 10 February 1861.
Princess Alice had some pearl necklaces, the famous Hessen pearls, which she is wearing above. And a pearl and diamond necklace was also a gift from her mother, comprising forty-seven natural white pearls measuring from 5.2mm to 14.2mm diameter to the old mine cut diamond clasp with pearl centre, mounted in silver and gold, circa 1860-1870, 45cm long.
Sources: Liverpool Mercury; „In der neuen Heimat“;Alice Großherzogin von Hessen und bei Rhein(Briefe an ihre Mutter Königin Victoria)Verlag Arnold Bergsträsser, Darmstadt, 1884;Christies;The Times;Sheffield Independent;Court circular;Morning Post;Royal Collection; Hessian Tapestry;
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