Obverse: circular cameo of St. George slaying the dragon with the Princess in the background; set in a gold mount and framed with eight rose-cut diamonds in silver collets. The gold suspension ring has a large rose-cut diamond in a silver collet. Reverse: oval enamel miniature painting of St. George and the dragon surrounded by the Garter and motto of the Order of the Garter ‘HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE’; (Shame on him who thinks evil of it); with surrounding scalloped border of white enamelled gold with black and pink scrollwork.

The Order of the Garter is the highest and oldest order of chivalry in England. Charles II used the ceremonies of the Order to create a magnificent impression, and as a way of rewarding and ensuring loyalty. Badges such as this were worn by Knights of the Order of the Garter to signify their membership.

When exhibited at the 1894 Heraldic Exhibition at Burlington House, this badge was said to have belonged to Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641), who was created a Knight of the Garter in 1640. For various reasons it is difficult to accept this provenance: the cut of the stones, their settings and the style of the enamelling would tend to place the badge in the second half of the seventeenth century. William III wears a similar George, seemingly set with twelve rose-cut diamonds, in a portrait of c.1690 in the Royal Collection.

The enamel miniature of St. George and the dragon on the reverse of the badge is after a painting by Raphael of c.1506, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. That painting had been presented to Charles I between 1628 and 1638 but was sold, together with most of the Royal Collection, in 1651. A miniature copy, painted by Peter Oliver for Charles I in 1628, survives in the Collection. Queen Victoria acquired a further seventeenth century miniature copy, in enamel on gold, in 1899.

It is not known how the badge entered the Royal Collection. It first appears as a later addendum to the 1909 inventory of gems and jewels where it is described as belonging to Charles I. When exhibited in 1894 the piece was in the collection of Sir Charles Robinson (1824-1913), Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures from 1882 to 1901.

Text adapted from Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2008 and Charles II: Art & Power, London, 2017.