royal brooch – Page 35

The Drapers’ Company Brooch

02.25.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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When Princess Maud of Wales married Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896, she received a treasure trove of jewels. At that point, though, she had no idea that her wedding gifts would one day become the cornerstone of a new royal collection. Carl and Maud became King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway in 1905, and her jewels are still some of the most important pieces in the Norwegian vaults. Today, we’re looking at one piece in particular: the Drapers’ Company Brooch.

The Illustrated London News, 1896

The illustrated list of Maud’s wedding gifts from the Illustrated London News features the brooch in the lower left-hand corner of the page. It is described as a “diamond and pearl ornament to be worn as a brooch or pendant.” The gift is attributed to the Drapers’ Company. (Read all about Maud’s royal wedding over here!)

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The Drapers’ Company is one of the livery companies in the City of London. It was founded in 1438 and received a royal charter in 1607. Today, one of its primary focuses is charitable work. Women and men who gain membership are granted the Freedom of the Company. In July of 1896, Prince Carl of Denmark became a freeman of the company; on the Thursday before the royal wedding, newspapers note that Carl and Maud’s brother, the Duke of York, were “entertained … by the Drapers company,” and Carl “was presented with the freedom of the Drapers’ Company.” The current Norwegian king, Harald V, is a freeman of the Drapers’ Company today; so is his cousin, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Maud was photographed wearing the Drapers’ Company Brooch pinned to the bodice of one of her elaborate turn-of-the-century gowns on various occasions. The brooch and the rest of her jewels weren’t her only wedding present, though; she and Carl also received a home, Appleton House, on the Sandringham estate owned by her parents, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. Even after becoming Norway’s queen consort, Maud spent a great deal of time at Appleton. She was on a visit to the Sandringham estate in October 1938 when she suddenly fell ill. After surgery in London, Maud died at Appleton House.

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Maud had brought her jewelry with her on her final visit to England, and it was left behind when her body was taken back to Norway. Less than a year later, war broke out, and the jewelry was transferred to Windsor Castle. It seems likely that the Drapers’ Company Brooch was among that collection. The jewels remained at Windsor until the Norwegian royals came to England for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. After the pomp and circumstance of the coronation had finished, they retrieved Maud’s jewels and brought them back to Oslo.

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The next person to wear the Drapers’ Company brooch should have been Maud’s daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Martha. But she was already ill with the cancer that would eventually kill her when Maud’s jewels were brought back to Norway, and she never got to wear most of the pieces from her mother-in-law’s collection. Instead, it seems that the next wearer of brooch was Maud’s granddaughter-in-law, Queen Sonja. She has made the brooch a central part of her jewelry rotation, especially in the 25 years since she became queen consort.

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Sonja has mostly worn the brooch for evening events, like the gala performance during Queen Margrethe II of Denmark’s Ruby Jubilee celebrations in 2012. She sometimes pairs the brooch with (the replica of) another of Maud’s wedding gifts, her diamond and pearl tiara.

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The brooch also coordinates well with the impressive diamond tiara from Crown Princess Martha’s collection, Queen Josefina’s Diamond Tiara. Above, she pairs the jewels during the May 2008 visit to Portugal.

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She also quite frequently wears the brooch with no tiara at all. It really is a substantial piece that can hold its own even without a paired diadem. Here, Sonja wears the brooch with pearls at the American-Scandinavian Foundation celebration of its 100th anniversary at Centennial Ball in New York in October 2011.

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Fittingly, she has also worn the brooch at events in the United Kingdom. She wore the brooch pinned to her gown at the sovereigns’ dinner during Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. Above, you can also see that the brooch also made an appearance at Buckingham Palace during the Diamond Jubilee.

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And she also wore the brooch (and the same red outfit) during one of the highest-profile celebrations in recent British memory: the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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Sonja has also chosen the brooch for very personal events. Here, she wears it during the celebrations for her 70th birthday.

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The piece also made a prominent appearance during Harald and Sonja’s Silver Jubilee celebrations in Oslo in January 2016.

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But although it is such a central part of her own jewelry box, Sonja also loaned the Drapers’ Company Brooch out for a very important event. Crown Princess Mette-Marit wore the brooch with (the replica of) the small setting of Queen Maud’s Pearl Tiara at the Swedish royal wedding in 2010. It was a timely reminder of the continuity of monarchy: a future Norwegian queen consort donning the heirloom brooch at the wedding of a future Swedish queen regnant.

Note: This is an updated version of an earlier post, with new text and images.

The Queen Mother’s Lily of the Valley Brooch

02.11.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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Some brooches are interesting because they’re beautiful, and some are interesting because they have a fascinating story. Today’s brooch, the Fabergé Lily of the Valley Brooch that belonged to the late Queen Mother, is both.

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The brooch was made by Fabergé to resemble a delicate spray of lily of the valley. It was given to the Queen Mother by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during his official visit to Britain in April 1956. Khrushchev, who visited alongside Nikolai Bulganin, presented lavish, bejeweled gifts to all three of the senior Windsor women during the trip.

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To my knowledge, we don’t have any official record of the Queen Mother wearing the brooch. These sorts of diplomatic gifts can sometimes be difficult to wear, because they have to be handled in specific, tactful ways. For example, the Queen received a sapphire and diamond brooch during the Khrushchev visit; in 1959, one newspaper reporter explained why an official gift like that brooch might not frequently be seen in public: “Some they wear, others are tucked away in vaults and seldom seen, such as the diamond brooch Nikita Khrushchev personally chose for the Queen before his visit to London in 1956. This will probably appear again only on Mr. Khrushchev’s next visit. Official guests are always complimented by seeing their previous gifts on display.”

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A generation removed from its original gift, though, the brooch’s political significance has become less immediate. Today, it’s more decorative than diplomatic, and it is now a favorite piece of the Duchess of Cornwall. She has worn the lovely, delicate brooch for many significant occasions, including the wedding of her daughter, Laura, in 2006. (It was a particularly good choice for a wedding. In the language of flowers, the lily of the valley symbolizes marital happiness.) Camilla has also often taken it on trips abroad. Above, she wears the brooch in Bogota during a five-day visit to Colombia in 2014.

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Camilla often wears the brooch against light green or cream-colored jackets, as she did above during a visit to Prince Edward Island in October 2014.

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She wore the brooch with the same outfit in Nunavut in June 2017, an occasion which gave us a particularly good look at the brooch’s delicate floral design.

Princess Benedikte’s Diamond and Pearl Scroll Brooch

02.04.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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The trio of royal sisters in Denmark — Queen Margrethe, Princess Benedikte, and Queen Anne-Marie — have an amazing treasure trove of heirloom Scandinavian royal jewels in their possession. Today, we’re talking about a lovely bauble, Princess Benedikte’s Diamond and Pearl Scroll Brooch, that traces back at least two more generations in the family.

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Benedikte has had the brooch in her jewelry box since 1969. That year, she gave birth to her first child, Prince Gustav of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. To mark the occasion, Benedikte’s mother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark, gave her daughter this brooch. Historians debate about the exact provenance of the brooch. Bjarne Steen Jensen, author of a book on Denmark’s royal jewels, argue that that the brooch belonged to Ingrid’s mother, Margaret of Connaught. I’ve also read, however, that the brooch came from Benedikte’s paternal grandparents, and was a gift from King Christian X of Denmark to his wife, Queen Alexandrine.

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Benedikte first wore the brooch for baby Gustav’s first official portraits. Since then, the piece has become a versatile staple in her jewelry wardrobe. She often wears it as a traditional brooch, as she did during Queen Margrethe’s 2009 visit to Germany. Above, during the 1995 wedding celebrations for her nephew, Prince Joachim of Denmark, she uses the brooch in another way: as a pendant on her pearl necklace.

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She wore the brooch in the same pendant configuration on a single-stranded pearl necklace for a dinner at Christiansborg Palace in 2006. For Joachim’s wedding, she wore the pendant with the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Fringe Tiara; on this occasion, however, she paired it with her own Floral Birthday Tiara.

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The brooch’s scroll shape bears a strong resemblance to a heart, so it shouldn’t be surprising that Benedikte has worn the piece at funeral services for two of the people she loved most. Above, she wears the scroll brooch for the funeral of her mother, Queen Ingrid, in 2000.

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And in 2017, she wore the brooch at the funeral of her husband, Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, who died quite suddenly at the age of 83. The gesture, literally wearing her heart pinned to her coat, was a lovely, sentimental statement during the celebration of Richard’s life.