Over the past several months, Queen Camilla has been sporting a lovely new brooch made of diamonds and enamel, and today, I’ve got all the details on its interesting history.
We first spotted Queen Camilla wearing a new diamond and green enamel brooch on January 31, when she attended the official opening of Maggie’s Royal Free, a new cancer support center at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
A few weeks later, on February 22, she wore the brooch for a second time. This time, the occasion was a Buckingham Palace reception during which the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for higher and further education were presented.
Most recently, Queen Camilla took the brooch with her for her brief trip to Northern Ireland on March 21. She wore it for a Queen’s Reading Room reception at Hillsborough Castle in Belfast in honor of World Poetry Day.
Many of us speculated about the origins of the brooch, which features a diamond square wrapped with bright emerald green enamel.
Here’s a closer look from the Queen’s Reading Room reception in Belfast. On that occasion, royal reporter Rebecca English shared an update from the palace on the piece, confirming that it was a gift to Queen Camilla from her husband, King Charles III.
But by then, some internet sleuths had already identified more provenance details about the piece. After the February 22 reception at Buckingham Palace, a royal watcher named Cathy posted on Twitter that the brooch had been sold by Wartski, a firm with deep connections to the royal family.
The brooch was described by Wartski as “an antique enamel and diamond set brooch,” made in England around 1890. The description added that the brooch was made “of an undulating square of old cut diamonds interwoven with two ribbon like, electric green enamelled gold strands.” Further notes followed. “The interweaving of two unbroken strands is symbolic of two lives which have been joined together by love,” the website added. “It is a bravura piece of goldsmithing, as the the entire surface of the narrow ribbons has been enamelled.”
The brooch retailed on the Wartski website for £8,000. In the weeks since, the page advertising and describing the brooch has been removed from the firm’s website, probably because of their understanding for the need for discretion when dealing with jewelry purchases by the Windsors. It’s just a lovely piece, and I’m so glad that we know a little more about it now! It’s a perfect way to celebrate the couple’s wedding anniversary, as they mark 19 years as a married couple today.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.