Why serpent jewellery has been a favourite of the Royal Family since Queen Victoria

But good judgement and shrewdness are just two of the many, and sometimes contradictory, qualities attributed to the slithering snake through the ages. ‘From antiquity onwards, it has been an incredibly potent symbol, representing whatever a particular culture sees in it,’ says Judy Rudoe, president of the Society of Jewellery Historians and a former British Museum curator. From ancient Egyptian times to today, this creature, inspiring both fascination and fear, has been loaded with…