Princess Anne’s Diamond Festoon Suite

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The Princess Royal’s jewelry collection often doesn’t get enough attention. The daughter of a reigning queen, Anne has inherited and received jewels from the British royal family and from her father’s Greek and German royal relatives. Today, on her birthday, we’ve got a closer look at one of her earlier birthday presents: her diamond festoon necklace and earrings.

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According to Leslie Field, this necklace was an eighteenth birthday present to Anne from her parents, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Field describes the necklace as “an antique diamond festoon necklace with ribbons and bows, and pendant drops.”

Anne attends a performance of The Pirates of Penzance, May 1982 (Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy)

Some have suggested in the past that the necklace was remade from one that belonged to Queen Alexandra; however, most sources state that Elizabeth and Philip purchased the necklace themselves.

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Along with the necklace, Field states that Anne received a coordinating pair of diamond pendant earrings from her parents.

Anne’s engagement portrait, 1973 (PA Images/Alamy)

Anne often pairs the necklace and earrings with the diamond festoon tiara that she received as a gift from the World Wide Shipping Group. Along with wearing the tiara, necklace, and earrings together for various state events, Anne wore them in her engagement portraits. She also wore the necklace and earrings with a diamond floral brooch in her 60th birthday portraits.

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And the earrings have also had one more very significant outing: Anne’s daughter, Zara, wore them on her wedding day in 2011 (along with a tiara that had belonged to Prince Philip’s mother, Alice of Battenberg).

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Anne recently combined the entire married parure — tiara, necklace, earrings, and brooch — for a banquet at the Guildhall during the Spanish state visit in 2017.