The Sapphire and Diamond Grapes Brooch

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Our journey through Queen Elizabeth II’s collection of sapphire brooches continues today with a look at an exuberant little bauble: her Sapphire and Diamond Grapes Brooch.

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The Queen inherited the brooch from her late mother in 2002. We don’t know much about its provenance, but the setting of the sapphire bow portion has always made me suspect that Van Cleef and Arpels may have had a hand in its construction.

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In June 2006, the Queen wore the brooch for the first day of an event long associated with her mother: Royal Ascot.

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She paired the brooch with a light blue coat and hat in March 2010 for the annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey.

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During her 2010 tour of Canada, she wore the brooch for a visit to the Canadian combined forces base in Halifax. You’ll note that, along with often wearing the brooch with shades of blue and white, she likes to match the bow portion of the brooch with a bow on her hat.

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See? Another bow on both brooch and hat, this time for a ceremony to mark the 20th Anniversary of the opening of the Eurotunnel in June 2014. She boarded the Eurostar afterward to head for a state visit in France, and of course the bunch of grapes were an excellent tribute to that wine-loving nation.

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She wore the brooch with a lovely blue ensemble in June 2018 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the charity Medical Detection Dogs.

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And a very recent outing for the brooch came in June 2019, when she wore it for a church service at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh during Holyrood Week.