A Gift from the Heart

This frame in gilded brass was a present from Queen Louise to Christian IX on the Royal Couple’s golden wedding anniversary, 26 May 1892.

In the heart-shaped frame are two miniature portraits of the queen, one from the time of the couple’s marriage in 1842 and the other immediately prior to the golden wedding anniversary fifty years later. The accompanying velvet case is rather worn, for Christian IX became so attached to the frame that he took it with him everywhere. After Queen Louise’s death in 1898 the King was often heard to lament the loss of the light of his life, and he is said to have always put the heart-shaped frame on his night table before he went to bed.