Will King Charles Wear His 'Ping Pong Ball' Crown to the Coronation? Explained

Did you know that the crown then King Charles wore while being invested as the Prince of Wales actually had a ‘ping pong’ ball in it?

According to the Guardian, the plastic sphere was carefully disguised: not only was it covered in gold filigree, but it was also surrounded by a floating constellation of diamonds organised in the pattern of Charles’ star sign, Scorpio.

What is the Ping Pong Ball Crown?

The report explains that the crown was designed by Louis Osman, an architect and goldsmith dubbed “the original hippie” by one of his friends, and it was a dramatic departure from the normal conservative royal headwear.

Swooping golden arches were flanked by abstract fleurs-de-lis and needle-thin crosses that jutted out like splintering lightning bolts in this ‘futuristic vision’. The gold came from a Welsh nugget, but instead of being hammered, it was electroplated onto an epoxy resin cast in a demonstration of modern technology. An interior purple velvet cap bordered with ermine finished the design, answering Charles’ demand for a crown that could be worn by a “modern prince” with a regular haircut, rather than someone with a wig and “showing ears.”

Ispahani Bartos, a modern jewellery design scholar, revealed that she owns one of the original 1969 Electroform models of Charles’s head and confirmed during the lecture that the orb at the top of Louis Osman’s radical design was, a ping poll ball, according to the Town and Country Magazine.

Prince Charles was preparing for his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, just two months shy of his 21st birthday, but he needed a crown. The single arched silver gilded Coronet of George was available, but when the Duke of Windsor fled his realm in 1936, he also took this crown with him. Yes, it was technically illegal, but the Queen Mother would rather make a new coronet for Charles than have to speak with Wallis or Edward again.

The hunt for Charles’ investiture crown got underway, however, the monarchy faced a difficult period in the late 1960s. “There were labour protests in England,” says Ispahani Bartos, founder and principal of Mahnaz Collection, a gallery famed for original and artist jewels from the 1960s to the present. “There were power outages across the country, an oil shortage, uprisings in Wales, and the troubles in Ireland have begun.” They wanted to do something a little more low-key and in line with the tone of the period,” she is quoted as saying by the Town and Country Magazine.

Crown jeweller Garrard’s initial proposal was rejected as too lavish and conspicuous. That’s when Louis Osman showed up.

Osman explains that Bartos did not follow any particular style. And he worked in a variety of capacities. He was an architect, a sculptor, a patron and historian of the arts, and a jeweller. Osman’s objective was to build a coronet that would convey drama and meaning without being overly heavy. However, the process proved challenging, and something went wrong. “The first time they tried to electroform the coronet, it was so delicate that it broke apart when it was stamped,” Osman says. They almost got it right on the second try, when Osman built another mould. However, the orb had not yet been successfully remade to Osman’s exact specifications. With little time left before the investiture for Osman to finish his work on the coronet, a technician supposedly came up with the notion of attempting to electroplate a ping pong ball. It was effective.

Will Charles Wear the Ping Pong Crown to his Coronation?

This time, however, Charles will not be crowned King in the modern headgear. Instead, the St Edward’s crown, designed in 1661 for Charles II and used by Queen Elizabeth II in her royal insignia will be used during the coronation. This headgear is based on an 11th-century crown purported to have been worn by Edward the Confessor, a claim most likely made up by Westminster Abbey monks in order to attract pilgrims, the report says. Their plan worked, and for the following 400 years, the crown was used at the coronation of every English monarch.

It weighs 2.07 kg and is decorated with rubies, amethysts and sapphires. It was made for the Coronation of Charles II in 1661 as a replacement for the medieval crown melted down in 1649, after the execution of Charles I. The lost medieval crown dated back to the 11th century and belonged to the royal saint, Edward the Confessor.

St Edward’s Crown was last used for crowning Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

The crown has “a very simple structure,” historian Anna Keay told the Court Jeweller in a report, with a sequence of 22-carat gold components (“the headband, the crosses and fleur-de-lys and arches”) joined together in 1661 to form the piece’s fundamental frame. “The settings for the jewels were then fixed through this frame from behind,” Keay says. A gold collar kept each gem in place, and the stones were set in clusters encircled by white enamel mounts in the shape of acanthus leaves.” Inside the crown, which has an ermine-trimmed base, is a velvet hat.

At some point during the coronation ceremony, Charles will withdraw into St Edward’s chapel and re-emerge as the king, wearing new headwear: the imperial state crown. It is the lighter of the two, weighing less than half as much as St Edward’s, and is worn for state openings of parliament and other ceremonial events.

The Imperial State Crown was created for King George VI’s Coronation in 1937, replacing a crown created for Queen Victoria.

The crown is encrusted with 2,868 diamonds and numerous notable jewels, as per the Royal Collection Trust.

It features St. Edward’s Sapphire, which Edward the Confessor is claimed to have worn in a ring. The Cullinan II diamond, the second largest cut from the enormous Cullinan Diamond, is also included in the crown. The Cullinan Diamond is the world’s biggest diamond.

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