![The Queen: A Life in Jewels](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/alifeinjewels.jpg?resize=1200%2C713&ssl=1)
Our bejeweled tribute to the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II continues today with a look at a special piece of jewelry that reinforces the love between generations of the royal family.
![Picture taken on January 1949 in the Buckingham Palace at London showing the baby Prince Charles](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket04.jpg?resize=1200%2C943&ssl=1)
On November 14, 1948, almost a year to the day after Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s royal wedding, Elizabeth gave birth to their first child. Prince Charles Philip Arthur George of Edinburgh was also the first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and his birth ensured that the monarchy would endure for another generation.
![Britain's Princess Elizabeth bends over baby Prince Charles on January 1949](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket05.jpg?resize=1200%2C1442&ssl=1)
The baby prince and his mother posed for his first set of official photographs in January 1949. In the images, Princess Elizabeth wears her wedding earrings with a special jewel gifted to her by her parents to celebrate Charles’s birth.
![Queen Elizabeth II attends the opening of the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre on June 7, 2016 in Cardiff, Wales](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket09.jpg?resize=800%2C1106&ssl=1)
Known as the Flower Basket Brooch, the jewel is set with diamonds and an array of colorful gems, including sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. This close-up view of the brooch dates to 2016.
![Princess Elizabeth, 1939](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket01.jpg?resize=800%2C599&ssl=1)
Interestingly, Princess Elizabeth had worn the brooch in public long before it arrived in her own jewelry box. She was photographed in the brooch in May 1939 as her parents departed for a lengthy royal tour of Canada. I think it’s likely that she borrowed the brooch from her mother for that particular occasion, and that Bertie and Elizabeth later decided to gift it to their daughter permanently.
![Princess Elizabeth being greeted on arrival at London Airport, on her way to Balmoral, England, August 4th 1951](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket10.jpg?resize=1200%2C1605&ssl=1)
After Charles’s birth, the Flower Basket Brooch quickly became one of Elizabeth’s most-worn jewels. Above, she wears it in August 1951 at London Airport as she departs for her annual summer holiday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. (As a sidenote: you’ll note that she’s wearing small sleeper earrings as well, as her ears had just been pierced.) She continued to wear the brooch regularly for a range of occasions throughout her entire 70-year reign.
![Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge show their new-born baby boy to the world's media outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London on July 23, 2013](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket07.jpg?resize=1200%2C866&ssl=1)
In the summer of 2013, the brooch’s sentimental meaning was reinforced following the birth of yet another royal generation. The Queen’s grandson, Prince William, and his wife, Catherine, welcomed their first child, Prince George, that July.
![Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, speak with Queen Elizabeth II as they hold their son Prince George of Cambridge at Chapel Royal in St James's Palace in central London on October 23, 2013, upon arrival for the christening of the three month-old prince](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket08.jpg?resize=1200%2C860&ssl=1)
William, Kate, and George are pictured here with the Queen three months later, at George’s christening at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace in October 2013.
![Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh followed by the Prince of Wales (background) leave Chapel Royal in St James's Palace in central London on October 23, 2013, following the Christening of Prince George of Cambridge](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket03.jpg?resize=1200%2C1793&ssl=1)
Touchingly, the Queen chose to wear the Flower Basket Brooch for this celebration of Prince Charles’s first grandson, just as her parents had used the brooch to celebrate his birth decades earlier.
![Prince George's Official Christening Photograph, 2013](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket06.jpg?resize=1200%2C1837&ssl=1)
The brooch had a place of prominence in the official photographs taken on the day, including this image showing four generations of the family.
![Queen Elizabeth II records her Christmas message to the Commonwealth, in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace on December 12, 2013 in London England](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1948-1114-basket02.jpg?resize=1200%2C799&ssl=1)
She reinforced the message of the brooch—conveying love for children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren—in her Christmas Broadcast in December 2013, when she reflected on George’s birth. Sentimentally, the four generations photograph from his christening was placed on the table beside her, in between portraits of her late parents.
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