The St. Edward's Crown - replica
I was commissioned to make this representation of the St. Edward's Crown by the same American collector who commissioned me to make the replica of the Imperial State Crown, pictures of which you will also find here on my website. For many years he has been commissioning replicas of significant crowns from around the world, representing many periods and styles.
I have made several less accurate versions of the St. Edward's Crown for theatre and opera productions, principally for every production of "Hamilton" (see Videos - Crowns section) though there were always budget and/or time constraints. In the case of the "Hamilton" crowns, the need for the minimum possible weight was required. To achieve this the main structure was cast in fibre-glass with a gold fabric covering and was decorated with painted light-weight resin stone surrounds, set mostly with acrylic stones.
For this commission I was able to construct the crown and all its components entirely in metal.
For budgetary reasons it was not possible to have the 36 major coloured stones and the 40 smaller coloured stones cut to order so I sourced commercially available synthetic stones and vintage stones from around the world to reproduce as far as possible the cut, shape and colour of the originals.
All of the smaller stones which look like diamonds on the actual St. Edward's Crown are in fact very pale aquamarines. I reproduced these by having (approximately 400) rose-cut stones cut to order in rock crystal in 8 sizes.
The main structure of the band and arches were made in copper, the hollow monde (ball) was formed in two halves by hammering copper sheet into a hemispherical former. All other elements were created using 3D printing software and cast in resin before producing metal-casting moulds from which I cast all the components needed in lead-free pewter. All of these, together with the main crown structure, were then refined, polished and electroplated in silver or gold finishes respectively. The beads were commercially available electroplated copper.
The stone surround mounts, except those for the fleurs-de-lys were painted with a base of white cellulose to represent the enamelled finish, leaving bright gold around the stones. The red detailing was added, also with cellulose paint.
The "ermine" roll was made with white synthetic fur, set with custom-made black synthetic fur "tails" by Shirley Jackson. The velvet cap is supported by a mesh under-cap, and the crown has a satin lining with an additional satin draw-string inner lining.
Photographs and video on this page by Woodie Williams
