A young Wilhelmina with the garniture’s brooch

The young Wilhelmina is wearing the brooch in this portrait of her from the 1860s. The portrait was taken by one of Sweden’s first female photographers, Bertha Valerius.

The brooch is four-sided with drop pendants and chains in the Neo-Renaissance style. In its purest form, gold is too soft to be used so is therefore mixed with other materials. In order to qualify as real gold in Sweden today, at least 18 of 24 carats – or 750 thousandths – of a piece of jewellery must be pure gold. Foreign or older pieces of gold may, however, contain lower levels.