Brooch of a garniture with gold topazes

Wilhelmina was given this brooch, together with the garniture’s bracelet, as a Christmas present from Walther in 1866. It was one of her favourite pieces of jewellery.

Genuine topaz is one of the hardest – and, therefore, finest – minerals on Earth, but the decorative gold topaz is really only an older name for what we now call Citrine. This is one of the minerals that was previously referred to as a semi-precious stone. The brooch is large – a so-called corsage – and may have been used in the young Wilhelmina’s décolletage for an evening dress.