That the State Crown, made in 1838 for Queen Victoria, was flimsily built and has been slowly sinking down upon itself, was revealed last week by a spokesman for George V. Able goldsmiths have just restored the Crown, declared the royal announcement. Adding new gold “they have reblocked it an inch higher, a necessary repair, for it had sunk so much and become so insecure that His Majesty could not have worn it much longer.” George V observed with satisfaction that each of the 3,000-odd stones in his reblocked headgear, diligently polished, now twinkle and gleam anew. (Startled was 17th Century England when Oliver Cromwell, having ousted the House of Stuart, discovered that the Queen’s coronation crown was a gross imposture of silver-gilt and paste jewels worth
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