royal brooch – Page 12

The Queen’s Diamond Wild Rose Brooch

01.26.2020 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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The snow just keeps falling here at The Court Jeweller HQ, and I’m already wishing for spring! At least I can enjoy gorgeous flowers right now in jewelry form, including the Queen’s beautiful Diamond Wild Rose Brooch.

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The brooch features a single wild rose with foliage, made of diamonds set in bright yellow gold. We don’t know much of anything about the piece’s history, but it’s been in the Queen’s jewelry box since at least the late 1960s. The piece is almost certainly one of the “two different diamond rose sprays set in gold” described by Leslie Field in her 1987 survey of the HM’s collection, The Queen’s Jewels.

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One of the earliest known appearances of the brooch came in November 1967, during the state visit to Malta by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. She wore the brooch to tour the new site of the Royal University of Malta during the visit.

In December 1983, the Queen chose the brooch for one of her most important annual appearances: her Christmas Message.

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The brooch has continued to make sporadic appearances on the monarch in more recent years. She wore the brooch on a golden jacket for a reception honoring the Great Britain Paralympic team at Buckingham Palace in February 2009.

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Two years later, in June 2011, she chose the brooch for lunch with the Camerons at 10 Downing Street.

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Here’s a closer view of the brooch during the visit, which was a celebration of the 90th birthday of the Duke of Edinburgh.

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The Queen often goes through phases, wearing brooch several times in a year or two and then putting it away for a while. That happened with the wild rose brooch in 2011-2012, where it made several prominent appearances at home and abroad. In October 2011, HM wore the brooch for a luncheon in Canberra during a ten-day tour of Australia. For the luncheon, she wore the brooch on the sunny yellow outfit she’d worn earlier that spring for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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The Duchess herself was present for the brooch’s next major public outing: a March 2012 visit to commemorate the refurbishment of the Fortnum and Mason store in Piccadilly. The Queen was accompanied by the Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge for her visit to the famous food hall.

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For the Fortnum and Mason visit, the Queen wore the brooch on a light blue jacket with golden trimmings. The gold setting of the brooch coordinated nicely with the jacket’s buttons, and the light blue background allowed the details of the rose to show nicely.

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One of the Queen’s most recent appearances in the brooch came in May 2012, when she wore the jewel with a light pink coat and hat for a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

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It’s been nearly a decade since we’ve gotten a good look at the Diamond Wild Rose Brooch in public, and I’m hoping for another outing for the beautiful jewel soon!

The Pearl Trefoil Brooch

01.12.2020 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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Some royal brooches are very event or outfit specific, while others can be worn for a wide range of occasions and with lots of different ensembles. Today’s brooch, the Pearl Trefoil, definitely falls into the second category.

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We don’t know much about the provenance of the brooch. It likely entered the Queen’s jewelry collection some time in the 1980s, as that’s when she began wearing it in public. Leslie Field describes the brooch as “a large diamond quatrefoil set with pearls having a pearl and diamond cluster in the centre,” but the brooch is definitely a trefoil, with two ribbon scrolls at the base. Above, you’ll see an early appearance of the brooch during Anzac Day ceremonies in Hobart in April 1988.

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The brooch’s design is intricate and delicate, making it easy to pair with lots of colors and styles. Unfortunately, that also meant that it disappears against the busy background of many of the Queen’s printed dresses from the ’80s and ’90s, as you’ll see in the photo above, taken at the closing ceremony of the 14th Commonwealth Games in Auckland in February 1990.

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The brooch looks much smarter against a solid background, like the pink coat worn for by the Queen for a visit to the Blois city hall during her June 1992 visit to France.

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The brooch quickly became a staple in the Queen’s daytime jewelry wardrobe, worn for a variety of occasions. In March 1995, she wore it while delivering remarks during a speech at Vista University in the New Brighton township of Port Elizabeth.

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The brooch has also made numerous high profile foreign and Commonwealth visits. During her state visit to India in October 1997, she wore the brooch for a ceremonial welcome at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi.

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And in March 2006, she chose the brooch for her arrival at Melbourne Airport during a five-day visit to Australia.

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During the last twenty years, the brooch has become one of the Queen’s very favorite daytime jewels. Here, in March 2001, she wears it for a visit to Pimlico Library in London.

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And in February 2002, she wore the brooch for an engagement, a visit to the Norfolk Police Head Quarters in Wymondham, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

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The design of the brooch really popped against the vibrant blue ensemble she wore for a tour of Sheridan College during her Golden Jubilee tour of Canada in October 2002.

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The brooch has also been one of the Queen’s frequent choices for holiday celebrations, including Easter at Windsor (including the 2003 service, pictured above) and several Christmas broadcasts.

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In July 2005, the Queen chose the brooch for Cartier International Day at Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park.

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The brooch also often accompanies the Queen to one of her favorite outings: visits to the races. In June 2007, she wore the brooch to present the Ascot Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

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In April 2007, she wore it for a very rainy day at Newbury racecourse.

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These days, the Queen often wears the brooch for regular daytime engagements, usually pinned to a brightly-colored coat that shows off the brooch’s details. This sky blue jacket was an especially pleasant background for the brooch as the Queen opened the new BBC Broadcasting House in London in July 2013.

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The brooch gleamed against an ensemble the color of orange sherbet during the naming ceremony for the cruise ship Britannia at Ocean Cruise Terminal in Southampton in March 2015.

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I expect that we’ll continue to see this brooch regularly for the forseeable future, as the Queen often wears it lately for events like audiences at the palace and outings to church.

The Williamson Pink Diamond Brooch

01.05.2020 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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The Queen’s magnificent jewelry collection includes several pieces so incredibly rare that they manage to stand out among the rest of the spectacular glitter. Today’s piece, the Williamson Pink Diamond Brooch, includes one of the rarest flawless pink diamonds in the world!

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The pink diamond set at the center of the brooch was discovered at the Williamson mine in Tanzania in 1947. The owner of the mine, Canadian geologist John Thoburn Williamson, decided to present the uncut diamond to Princess Elizabeth as a wedding gift that November. The rough gem, which weighed in at 54.5 carats, was displayed at St. James’s Palace ahead of the royal wedding. Williamson, reportedly keen to avoid the grand social situation that would accompany a personal presentation of the gift, had it presented by a representative instead.

In 1948, the princess turned to diamond cutters Briefel and Lemer, headquartered in Clerkenwell, to transform the rough diamond into a faceted gem. That March, Elizabeth visited the firm to check in on the cutting process. The Montreal Gazette reported that she “smiled delightedly” when she saw the progress that had been made on the diamond. She was accompanied by her jewelry-loving grandmother, Queen Mary; the paper wrote that “true to form,” Mary “asked numerous questions of a technical nature” during the hour-long visit. A few weeks later, after the cutting process was finished, the new 23.6-carat diamond was displayed as part of a major diamond exhibition in London. Other pieces from Elizabeth’s jewelry box, including the Flame Lily Brooch and the South African Diamonds, were also exhibited alongside the Williamson Pink that May.

With the diamond now ready to be mounted in a piece of jewelry, Princess Elizabeth looked to her parents’ favorite jewelry firm, Cartier, to create a suitable setting. Newspapers reported in October 1949 that she was having trouble deciding precisely how the diamond should be used: “At first the Princess thought it might be fitted into her personal crown, but experts considered it might lose its glory among so many other jewels.” Some suggested it would look best as a pendant on a necklace. Ultimately, though, the stone was placed at the center of a jonquil brooch designed by Frederick A. Mew of Cartier’s London branch. (At the same time, Mew was at work on the changes to the Greville Tiara ordered by the Queen Mother.) An additional 203 white diamonds — mostly brilliants, but also baguettes and marquises — were used to finish the jewel. The brooch, made of platinum, was completed in 1953, the year that Princess Elizabeth was crowned as Queen Elizabeth II.

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The piece became a favorite item in the new Queen’s jewelry box almost immediately. The brooch was front and center in a series of portraits, also featuring Prince Charles and Princess Anne, that were taken by Marcus Adams in late 1954.

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The size of the brooch, and the prominence of the famous pink diamond, made the piece especially well-suited for important diplomatic occasions. The Queen has worn the brooch often for state visits, including a welcome ceremony for President Francisco Craveiro Lopes of Portugal in October 1955.

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In May 1957, she wore the brooch as she sailed into Copenhagen’s harbor aboard Britannia for the start of a state visit with King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark.

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Three years later, in July 1960, the Queen chose the brooch again for a welcome ceremony during the state visit of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and his wife, Queen Sirikit.

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The classic design of the piece has made it a diplomatic mainstay throughout the Queen’s reign. Here, in December 1992, she wears it aboard the Britannia, where she and the Duke of Edinburgh hosted a dinner for European heads of state (including French President Francois Mitterand, shown with the Queen above) during a European Council summit. On this rare evening outing for the brooch, she paired it with the dramatic Greville Chandelier Earrings.

The Queen has often selected the brooch for important personal occasions as well. She has twice worn it for her annual Christmas broadcast, with appearances in 1968 (shown above) and 1998.

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She has also worn the brooch twice for weddings of her children. In 1981, she wore the brooch for the wedding of her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer.

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And in 1999, she chose the brooch for the wedding of her youngest son, the Earl of Wessex, and Sophie Rhys-Jones.

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The natural flower design of the brooch also makes it appropriate for one of the Queen’s favorite pastimes: days at the races. Above, she wears the brooch with four strands of pearls for the Epsom Derby in June 1957.

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The piece has also made appearances at Royal Ascot, including this outing in June 2011.

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One of the highest-profile outings for the brooch in recent memory came in June 2014, when she wore it at the Elysee Palace during an official visit to Paris. The brooch has also been loaned out for prominent exhibitions in recent years, including the landmark Cartier exhibition held in Canberra in 2018.