The Queen Consort was out and about in London this week, wearing a pair of sparkling brooches. Here’s a closer look at the two magnificent diamond jewels.
On Wednesday, Queen Camilla joined the King, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex, and the Duke of Gloucester at a Buckingham Palace reception honoring the Team GB medalists from the recent Tokyo Olympic Games.
Camilla chose her classic diamond knot brooch for the reception, pinned to a favorite midnight blue velvet jacket. (Beside her, Princess Anne wears an Olympic-related brooch, which we talked more about here!)
The brooch has been in Camilla’s collection for several years. To the best of my knowledge, we don’t know anything specific about its provenance, but she’s chosen it for some high-profile occasions. Above, she wears the brooch on Christmas Day to attend a church service near Sandringham in December 2019.
She wore the brooch (and the blue velvet jacket) to (virtually) decorate the Clarence House Christmas Tree with children from the Helen & Douglas House Hospice in December 2020.
The brooch accompanied her to Athens for an official visit to Greece in March 2021.
And, meaningfully, it was the brooch she wore for her first public appearance as Queen Consort following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
Here’s another view of Camilla wearing the knot brooch during Wednesday’s reception. She paired it with her favorite diamond and pearl drop earrings, plus her engagement and wedding rings.
On Thursday, Queen Camilla held her first official audience at Buckingham Palace, meeting with Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho.
Later in the day, she joined King Charles at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, where they viewed the new Africa Fashion exhibition. The show is a celebration of the creativity, ingenuity, and global impact of African fashion.
For both the official audience and the exhibition tour, Camilla wore the diamond, enamel, and carved rock crystal brooch that belonged to the late Queen Mother.
The brooch is about a century old. It was first worn in the 1920s by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who was then the Duchess of York. She liked to pin the brooch to the brims of her fashionable hats. Here, she wears the brooch on a hat in Sydney during the 1927 royal tour of Australia.
Queen Camilla has been wearing the brooch for several years. Here, she wears the jewel in February 2018 during a visit to the Royal Academy of Dance in London. The black enamel accents pop nicely in this particular photograph, I think.
She also wore the brooch more recently outside Clarence House, where she greeted well-wishers following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
And here’s one more look at the brooch as it was worn on Thursday. Queen Camilla used both of her brooches this week to secure paper poppies, worn ahead of the Remembrance Sunday commemorations next weekend.
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