All week, we’ve been marveling at gala jewels worn by the Queen in each decade of her remarkable reign. Today, we’re making a stop in the 1980s, with a dazzling diamond ensemble worn for a banquet in Singapore.
In October 1989, the Queen made official visits to Singapore and Malaysia ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kuala Lumpur. On October 10, she was the guest of honor at a banquet hosted by President Wee Kim Wee of Singapore at his official residence, The Istana.
For the banquet, the Queen wore a lovely gown with a gold lace overlay and a ruffled neckline. The red and white sash of the Order of Temasek, her highest Singaporean decoration, was placed across the gown and secured by one of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Bow Brooches.
The Queen’s jewelry for the banquet was an assortment of diamond pieces. With the bow brooch, she wore the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, an heirloom from Queen Mary. By this time, the base of the jewel had been reunited with the rest of the tiara, making it a much larger and more substantial piece.
With the tiara, the Queen wore jewels with diamond drops used prominently in their design. She wore the Antique Girandole Earrings, which take their name from a description provided by Leslie Field. (We don’t appear to have any significant provenance information about them.) She also wore the King Khalid Necklace, made by Harry Winston and presented to the Queen by King Khalid of Saudi Arabia in 1979. The Queen has often paired the girandole earrings with the Khalid necklace for gala occasions.
During a toast at the banquet, we got a lovely view of two more pieces of diamond jewelry. The Queen wore a diamond bracelet on her right wrist, and an impressive diamond ring on her right hand. The bracelet is the Diamond Baguette and Brilliant Bracelet, a gift from King George VI, with its distinctive diamond twist turned to the inside of her wrist. (We previously discussed the bracelet here.) I believe the ring is the one made for her by Cartier, which features a 6.6-carat marquise-cut diamond given to her during her 1961 visit to Sierra Leone.
P.S.: The return dinner during this 1989 visit also included a whole lot of sapphire and diamond sparkle. You can see it all in this article!
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