This is a mourning handkerchief owned by Queen Victoria. It is of the finest cambric linen and the embroidery shows her own cipher. Victorian etiquette ruled that widows went into deep mourning (called First Mourning) for a year and a day after the death of their husband.

Some sources advised that during this time only black handkerchiefs should be used. This advice varied, and a complete list of clothes needed for respectable First Mourning and published in the 1881 issue of Sylvia's Home Journal included 'Twelve handkerchiefs with black borders, for ordinary use, cambric' and 'Twelve of finer cambric for better occasions'. Decoration, in the form of black edging, took a number of forms from plain printed or woven borders to black embroidery, as in this example, and narrowed as mourning diminished.

It is not possible to date this handkerchief accurately. The depth of Queen Victoria's anguish on the death of Prince Albert meant that her mourning extended the usual periods acceptable and, as royalty, she set or flouted trends to suit herself. The handkerchief was given to the Museum along with other royal accessories by the Duke of Gloucester, a great grandson of Queen Victoria.