The Qatari state visit to Britain has officially begun, with the Princess of Wales paying a jewelry tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II as she helped to welcome the royal couple to London.
The Prince and Princess of Wales greeted the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and his royal consort, Sheikha Jawaher, on Tuesday at their hotel ahead of the official welcome ceremony at the start of the state visit. The 44-year-old Emir and the 42-year-old Prince are contemporaries. Like Prince William, Sheikh Tamim was educated in Britain and attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He married Sheikha Jawaher, the first of his three wives, in 2005.
William and Catherine accompanied the Qatari royal couple to Horse Guards Parade in London, where they were met by King Charles III for an official welcome ceremony. Queen Camilla was not present for this part of the visit, though she joined the party back at Buckingham Palace (see below). She revealed to visitors later in the day at Buckingham Palace that she is still suffering from pneumonia, and she has curtailed parts of her participation in the visit on doctors’ orders. Camilla will be present for segments of tonight’s state banquet, which Catherine will not attend.
For the welcome ceremony at Horse Guards Parade, Princess Catherine dressed warmly, wearing a Alexander McQueen coat with a coordinating hat, boots, and gloves, all in a fashionable shade of burgundy.
She accessorized with some important pieces of jewelry as well, wearing diamonds and pearls that belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth II: the Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings and the necklace from the Japanese Pearl Suite.
The pearl and diamond jewels were sometimes worn together by the late Queen as a married demi-parure. The earrings were made using pearls gifted to her by the Hakim of Bahrain to celebrate her royal wedding in 1947. The necklace and matching bracelet, later additions to her collection, were made by Garrard using pearls thought to have been given to her by the Japanese government. Above, Elizabeth wears the earrings, necklace, and bracelet together during the Chinese state visit to Britain in 1999.
During her lifetime, Elizabeth loaned the jewelry pieces to other members of the family. Diana, Princess of Wales notably wore the Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings and the Japanese Pearl Suite together with Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara and her sapphire and diamond brooch during the Dutch state visit to Britain in the autumn of 1982. The earrings were also loaned in 2012 to the present Duchess of Edinburgh.
Kate began wearing the jewels when she was still Duchess of Cambridge. Here, she wears the Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings for Trooping the Colour in June 2019.
Poignantly, she wore the earrings and the necklace and bracelet for two important moments in royal history: the funerals of the late Duke of Edinburgh in 2021 and the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. She has continued to wear the jewels since the late monarch’s passing.
Kate also joined the rest of the royal party at Buckingham Palace after the welcome ceremony for the traditional viewing of items from the Royal Collection. Here, we can see that she also wore Diana’s Nigel Milne Pearl Bracelet, plus her iconic diamond and sapphire engagement ring.
The women of the Qatari royal family are known for their love of haute couture fashion, and Sheikha Jawaher was predictably elegant for the first official moments of the state visit on Tuesday. She wore a long gray coat with gold buttons, a little military styling that gestured nicely to the occasion, over a scarlet red dress.
She also accessorized with some impressive diamonds, including these earrings that feature pear-shaped diamond studs and drops linked together by round diamond brilliants. A gorgeous diamond ring also winks up from her left hand in some of the photographs above.
Queen Camilla was waiting for the King and the Qatari royals back at Buckingham Palace. Photographs show her wearing a very large sapphire and diamond brooch. It’s the Russian Sapphire Cluster Brooch, a piece that Queen Mary acquired from the descendants of Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia.
The brooch was later worn by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Camilla made her public debut in the brooch at the Commonwealth Day service in March 2023, and she also wore it for the welcome ceremony at the start of the South Korean state visit in November 2023.
Another quick jewelry note from the gift exchange that took place after the royals arrived back at the palace. Sheikha Jawaher’s present to Queen Camilla, per royal reporters, was “a multi-stranded necklace of pearls.” I speculated earlier today about various Qatari royal jewelry gifts that we might see Camilla wearing at tonight’s banquet. I think it’s a good bet now that we may see the new necklace on Camilla for the dinner.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.