Queen Camilla Wears the Late Queen’s Gold and Sapphire Brooches for the Royal Maundy Service

An exciting royal jewelry moment took place at today’s Royal Maundy Service! For one of the British royal family’s traditional Holy Week appearances today, Queen Camilla unearthed a pair of lesser-known brooches that belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Camilla arrived at Worcester Cathedral to attend the Royal Maundy Service on Thursday. She was joined by the Lord High Almoner, who is also the Bishop of Worcester. (We talked about him a bit in our earlier Royal Maundy article today.)

Queen Camilla was again acting on behalf of King Charles III at today’s service. He recorded a message and reading for the service yesterday at Buckingham Palace, but Camilla stepped in to attend in person and distribute Maundy Money to 75 men and 75 women at the service.

The men and women who received Maundy Money were chosen in recognition of service to their local communities.

For this year’s Royal Maundy Service, Queen Camilla wore a cream-colored coat by one of her favorite designers, Fiona Clare, with a lightweight leopard-print dress underneath. She also added a hat, boots, gloves, and a handbag in coordinating neutral shades.

But, of course, it was the jewelry that caught my eye on this occasion. Royal reporters confirmed that the brooches worn by Camilla on the collar of her coat come from the collection of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Here’s a closer look. The vintage brooches feature textured gold flowers set with diamonds and sapphires.

The clip brooches come from Cartier. In The Queen’s Jewels, Leslie Field writes, “The Queen’s Cartier gold flower clips, with clusters of cushion-shaped sapphires and brilliant-cut diamonds in their centres, were bought separately in 1942 and 1945 by King George and Queen Elizabeth.” They gifted the brooches to Princess Elizabeth, who wears them above during her trip to North America in the autumn of 1951.

The late Queen usually wore the flower brooches together as a pair, placed side-by-side in her usual brooch location. Above, she wears them during a visit to Bracknell in 1991.

I think it’s fair to say that these brooches weren’t among the Queen’s very favorite pieces, but she did wear them occasionally over the years. Above, she wears them for the Epsom Derby in 1995.

And here’s one more look at Camilla wearing the brooches together for today’s Royal Maundy Service. For the occasion, she paired the jewels with her gold and diamond coronation earrings, which she’s worn a few times since that special moment last year.