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Today marks the 68th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne. It seems like a particularly appropriate time to take a closer look at one of the jewels associated with that moment: the Flame Lily Brooch.

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The brooch, made of diamonds set in platinum and white gold, is designed to represent Zimbabwe’s national flower, the flame lily. The piece was designed by Len Bell, a jeweler based in Harare, and made by Eric Kippin for Sidarsky and Son in Johannesburg in 1947.

Princess Elizabeth’s official 21st birthday portrait, taken on April 18, 1947, in London (AFP via Getty Images)

The brooch was commissioned as a 21st birthday gift for Princess Elizabeth from the children of Zimbabwe, which was then called Southern Rhodesia. Elizabeth arrived in the country with her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and her sister, Princess Margaret, on April 7, 1947. The stop was a part of their tour of southern Africa. King George opened the nation’s parliament, and later the same day, six children presented the brooch to the princess.

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Elizabeth wore the delicate diamond brooch frequently in the early 1950s. Above, she sports the piece to inspect a group of crewmen aboard the HMCS Ontario during a tour of Newfoundland in November 1951.

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In January 1952, Elizabeth and her dressers packed the flame lily brooch in her luggage as they prepared to embark on a lengthy Commonwealth tour. But, as we all know, history intervened. Her father, King George, died on February 6, 1952, while she was in Kenya. The tour was hastily canceled, and the new Queen Elizabeth II flew quickly back to England. On the flight home, the Queen dressed in black mourning clothes and pinned the flame lily to her coat.

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In some of the most iconic images of her reign, photographers captured her on February 7, 1952, wearing the brooch as she descended the stairs to step on English soil as monarch for the first time. She was also photographed leaving the airport in a car, exhaustion and sorrow plain on her face.

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The new Queen actually wore the brooch multiple times during the period of mourning that followed her father’s death. Above, she wears the jewels with a black coat as she and the Duke of Beaufort attend the Olympic Horse Trials at Badminton in April 1952.

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In June 1952, she wore the brooch as she stepped of the plane that carried her from Balmoral, where she’d spent the Whitsun holiday with her young children, to London on her way back to Windsor.

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In more recent years, the brooch has remained a favorite. Sixty years after she received the brooch, she wore it for the second day of Royal Ascot in June 2007. By this point, there were actually two identical flame lily brooches in the Queen’s collection. In June 1953, Eric Kippen made copies of the brooch for the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, and the Queen inherited her mother’s version of the brooch in 2002. There’s really no easy way to tell the difference between the two brooches, so these days, we don’t know whether HM is wearing her own brooch or the later copy. I think it’s more likely that she’s simply kept on wearing her own brooch — but who knows?

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In November 2010, she wore the brooch for diplomatic meetings in Abu Dhabi during her visit to the United Arab Emirates.

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The brooch made a very prominent appearance, with the diamonds sparkling mightily on a red dress, during the Queen’s Christmas Message in December 2011.

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The brooch is well-suited for garden parties, like this one at Buckingham Palace, held in June 2013.

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In November 2016, the Queen chose the brooch for an occasion honoring another stalwart member of the royal family, wearing it for a Buckingham Palace reception held in honor of Princess Alexandra’s 80th birthday year.

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The brooch’s delicate design tends to get lost a bit when worn against prints, but it shines brightly when worn with bright or dark colors. This yellow coat provided a perfect background for the brooch during Royal Ascot in June 2017.

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More recently, the Queen wore the brooch with a lime green jacket for an appropriately floral occasion: her annual visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in May 2019.

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The Queen’s collection of amethyst jewels is much smaller than her collections of many other gemstones, but the pieces she does have are particularly lovely and interesting. Today, we’re looking at a pair of brooches that go together: her Amethyst Floral Brooches.

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The set includes two coordinating brooches featuring amethysts and diamonds in a floral setting made of yellow gold. The pieces are quite similar but not the same; they feature the same design elements arranged differently. One of the brooches features a pair of larger pear-shaped amethysts at the top, while the other has one pear-shaped amethyst and one round amethyst at the top of the piece.

To my knowledge, the palace has never revealed any provenance information about the brooches. We do know, however, that the Queen has had them in her collection since at least the early 1990s. One early appearance came in 1993, when she wore one of the brooches for her annual Christmas Message. Interestingly, although the pieces are a coordinating pair, the Queen only ever wears them one at a time.

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The brooches have been particular favorites of the Queen over the past decade or so. In her Diamond Jubilee year, she often wore one of them for engagements with a lavender-colored ensemble. Above, she wears one of the brooches for a visit to Nine Springs Park in Yeovil during her Diamond Jubilee Tour in May 2012.

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She repeated the same outfit and brooch about a month later, wearing it for the fourth day of Royal Ascot in June 2012.

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She pinned one of the brooches to a vivid purple outfit for a Rugby World Cup reception at Buckingham Palace in October 2015.

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She often wears one of the brooches with one ensemble in particular: a dark purple coat and hat, which is decorated with white and purple flowers. Above, she pairs the brooch with the outfit for the 70th anniversary of the International Maritime Organization in London in March 2018.

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She wore the same combination for the official welcome ceremony during the Dutch state visit in October 2018…

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…and for a more somber event in April 2017: a memorial service in honor of her former brother-in-law, the late Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon.

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And in March 2019, she chose the brooch for another sentimental occasion: a reception to mark the 50th anniversary of the Prince of Wales’s investiture.