Buckingham Palace Exhibition to Highlight Edwardian Elegance

Visitors should prepare to be dazzled as diamond tiaras, necklaces and other sparkly royal items go on display April 11 at the King’s Gallery, the public gallery at Buckingham Palace that features selections from the vast royal collection of art, furniture, jewelry and more.

The exhibition, titled “The Edwardians: The Age of Elegance,” is to showcase the possessions of two style-setting royal couples of the early 20th century: Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and their son, George V, and his wife, Queen Mary. (George V is the maternal great-grandfather of Britain’s current king, Charles III.)

“The Edwardian period, as we think about it, is very glamorous,” said Kathryn Jones, the exhibition’s curator and the senior curator of decorative arts at the Royal Collection Trust, the charitable body established in 1993 to manage the collection. The royal family at the time “are living this incredibly opulent and, not frivolous, but slightly hedonistic lifestyle, going to garden parties, sporting events and costume balls,” she said.

About half of the 315 objets d’art selected for the exhibition are to be shown for the first time, according to Ms. Jones, because “we’ve not touched on the Edwardians before.” (The gallery was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.)

She said the exhibits were to include Edward VII’s blue enamel cigarette case by Fabergé, showing that men could “express themselves artistically through their smoking accessories,” and a lavish ostrich feather fan “that Queen Alexandra used at her coronation with diamonds on the guard sticks.”

According to Ms. Jones, jewelry plays an important role in telling the royals’ stories: “Both Alexandra and Mary are renowned for their jewels. And if you look at the official portraits of them, I mean, they really do both drape themselves almost from head to toe in jewelry. It’s really part of their image.

“Alexandra, in particular, has this incredibly glamorous image and at the time she’s renowned for, you know, being a leader of fashion.”

And one of the many wide chokers that were a signature of Queen Mary’s personal style is to be included, this one set with diamonds.

Sometimes the royals had a hand in the jewelry design, as they were “commissioning pieces, sending pieces back to be altered,” Ms. Jones said. As an example, she referred to the elaborate diamond Dagmar necklace with its gold and enamel cross that was given to Alexandra, a princess at the time, by a cousin, the king of Denmark, for her wedding in 1863. “When it arrived in Britain she sent it to Garrard’s and had extra pearls added to it so it shows her personal intervention,” she said.

The exhibition, to run through Nov. 23, ends with the years after World War I. The conflict’s death and destruction produced “a very different sense of monarchy,” Ms. Jones said. “So although of course they are still collecting, it’s a very different sort of style and mind-set so it seemed a logical place to end at that point.”

Ticket prices vary (adults pay 19 pounds, or $23.40) and may be purchased for specific entry times through the Royal Collection Trust’s website.