Joyas de Pasar: The Diamond Earrings

 

Next up in our week-long series on the Spanish joyas de pasar: the gorgeous diamond cluster earrings! Here’s a closer look at this dazzling part of the collection.

As we’ve discussed in our posts this week on the Fleur-de-Lis Tiara and the Diamond Bracelets, the joyas de pasar are a collection of jewels that Queen Ena designated in her will to pass from monarch to monarch. In the will, these earrings are described as “un par de pendientes con un brillante grueso y brillantes alrededor” (a pair of earrings with a large diamond with a diamond border). Queen Ena received the earrings from her husband, King Alfonso XIII, as a wedding gift in 1906, and she wore them throughout his reign and, afterward, in exile.

The next Queen of Spain to wear the earrings was Queen Ena’s granddaughter-in-law, Queen Sofia. She wore the earrings mainly for gala occasions, including state banquets and royal weddings. Above, she wears them in June 2014 for the final state banquet of King Juan Carlos’s reign. (She’s also wearing the tiara and diamond necklace from the joyas collection in this photo.)

She also loaned the earrings to her daughter, Infanta Cristina, for her wedding. Cristina wore them with the Spanish Floral Tiara on her wedding day in 1997.

The collection passed to King Felipe and Queen Letizia when King Juan Carlos abdicated in June 2014. Even so, Queen Letizia waited almost three years to wear the jewels in public. She debuted the tiara, the earrings, and the bracelets at the Argentine state banquet in Madrid in February 2017.

A few months later, in July 2017, Queen Letizia made a splash in the joyas tiara, earrings, and bracelet at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace during the couple’s state visit to the United Kingdom.

Letizia has worn the earrings both with and without tiaras from the royal vaults. She let the earrings take center stage in November 2017 at the return dinner during the Israeli state visit to Madrid.

She’s also worn the earrings for two more significant tiara debut moments. In April 2018, she paired them with Queen Ena’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara for the Portuguese state banquet in Madrid…

…and in November 2018, she wore them with Queen Maria Cristina’s Diamond Loop Tiara for a banquet in Madrid in honor of the President of China.

The earrings added some extra meaningful sparkle for an important recent daytime event: the Order of the Garter service at Windsor Castle in June 2019. Queen Letizia attended the event with King Felipe, who was invested as a member of the chivalric order.

One of her most recent appearances in the earrings came in October 2019, when she wore them with La Buena during the enthronement celebrations for Emperor Naruhito of Japan.

And she repeated the same tiara and earrings for a gorgeous set of formal portraits released in February 2020. I expect we’ll see the gorgeous, impressive earrings on Queen Letizia for important occasions for the rest of her husband’s reign.