About this lot

Description

A memorial stick pin for John Brown, in the form of a medallion with the ghillie's portrait bust, initials JB and date of death 1883 on one side, the reverse inscribed with Queen Victoria's monogram 'From VRI', collet set in a ring border (tests for silver) to a yellow pin (tests for 14ct gold), diameter 1.7cm
Lytton Strachey wrote a biography of Queen Victoria published in 1921 just twenty years after her death, in which he describes Victoria's 'affectionate friendship' with her Balmoral servant, who came to have an unpopularly prominent rĂ´le in her life after Prince Albert's untimely demise in 1861, and whom she described in her journal as 'my devoted personal servant and faithful friend'. When John Brown died, Queen Victoria saw that 'a long and eulogistic obituary notice of him appeared in the Court Circular; and a Brown memorial brooch - of gold, with the late ghillie's head on one side and the royal monogram on the other - was designed by Her Majesty for presentation to her Highland servants and cottagers, to be worn by them on the anniversary of his death, with a mourning scarf and pins.'

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