This episode is brought to you by Fully Gemstones.

It is my opinion that the sapphire in the centre of the coronet, for those of you that go to the VNA,

where it has been on display now for nearly three years, and it has its own cabinet,

and it is the Victoria and Albert Museum,

and it is the joint venture by Victoria and Albert.

I think the sapphire in the centre of that

is Edward the Confessers Sapphire.

Welcome to If Jels Could Talk.

I'm Carol Walton, the voice of jewelry, an author, broadcaster,

and the woman who initiated the role of Jewelry editor at magazines like Taffler and British Vogue.

This is a podcast for everyone.

For people who do like jewelry, for people who don't realise they like jewellery,

and anyone intrigued by fascinating facts, new ideas and forgotten histories.

So please join me as I tell sparkly tales meeting all sorts of people delving into four centuries of jewellery culture and investigate what's happening now.

Today we're talking about Queen Victoria, sentimentality, crown jewels and the coronet.

We're all in a bit of coronation fever in England as that's approaching the

coronation of King Charles III. And I thought for this episode, it's really good to kind of

scroll back and talk about Queen Victoria's legacy. I'm delighted to be joined today by John Hawkins,

who is joining me from Tasmania in Australia and is responsible for having

created some of the world's greatest collections of decorative arts. He's supplied many

historic items to the world's leading institutions and museum. He's the author of numerous books

and catalogs. He exhibits his collections around the world and is a

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