What is George IV's connection to lover's-eye jewellery?

He is regarded as the originator of the lover's-eye fashion. In 1785 - then 22 years old and at the centre of a scandal over his secret marriage to the Roman Catholic widow Maria Fitzherbert - he had an English miniaturist paint a tiny portrait of Maria Fitzherbert's eye. The image was set into a ring and was meant to allow him to carry her likeness with him without revealing her identity (since a single eye without further facial features is hard to attribute to any particular person). This secret gesture set off a lasting fashion - lover's-eye jewellery spread widely through the aristocracy and the upper middle classes between 1790 and 1830 (see Lovers' Eye).

What was the Regency era?

The period between 1811 and 1820, in which George IV ruled as Prince Regent while his father George III was unable to rule because of a chronic mental illness. The Regency era is extraordinarily formative in the history of style - neoclassical architecture, sensibility and Romanticism in literature (Jane Austen, Lord Byron), elegant fashion (the Empire silhouette), and in jewellery a high point of sentimental work with lover's eyes, sepia hair painting and miniature portraits.

Which pieces of jewellery are directly linked to George IV?

Several. The original lover's-eye ring of 1785 with Maria Fitzherbert's eye is today in a private collection; replicas and subsequent commissions survive in museums. George IV owned numerous mourning and sentimental pieces commemorating his daughter Princess Charlotte (died 1817), his mother Queen Charlotte (died 1818) and other family members. The Royal Collection catalogues more than forty pieces of jewellery personally owned by George IV.

How significant was Princess Charlotte's death in 1817 for the history of mourning jewellery?

Very significant. Princess Charlotte - the only daughter of George IV and heir presumptive - died on 6 November 1817 at the age of 21 giving birth to a stillborn son. The national mourning in England was unprecedented; a massive wave of mourning jewellery swept the country. Thousands of mourning pendants, lockets and rings relating to Charlotte were made. This was the first mass industrial mourning-jewellery event in English history and is regarded as the forerunner of the later Victorian mass production of mourning jewellery.

George IV (1762–1830)

George IV, Prince Regent from 1811 and King of England from 1820 to 1830, was a pronounced lover of sentimental jewellery and as such shaped the transitional phase in jewellery history between the Georgian and the Victorian mourning traditions - the lover's-eye fashion in particular is directly connected to his personal commission of 1785.

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