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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

The Kensington Bow Brooch

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The Queen wears the Kensington Bow Brooch
The Queen wears the Kensington Bow Brooch at the Festival of Remembrance, November 2017 (STEFAN ROUSSEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom certainly isn’t lacking in one particular jewelry category: diamond bow and ribbon brooches. Today’s jewel, the Kensington Bow Brooch, is one of the larger examples of the category in her collection.

The Kensington Bow Brooch
The Kensington Bow Brooch, 2006 (Chris Radburn/PA Images/Alamy)

The brooch is a classic diamond bow with a pear-shaped pearl pendant. It was made in 1893 by Collingwood and given to Princess May of Teck as a wedding present the same year. The gift was offered to the princess by the people of Kensington. It was an appropriate present: not only was the future Queen Mary born at Kensington Palace, she spent a good deal of her childhood there, as well.

The Duke and Duchess of York (King George V and Queen Mary)
The Duke and Duchess of York, photographed by Lafayette at the Devonshire House Ball, July 1897 (Wikimedia Commons)

The new Duchess of York began wearing the brooch almost immediately. One prominent early appearance came in the summer of 1897, when she wore it for the famous Devonshire House Ball. Mary dressed as a lady from the court of Marguerite de Valois, who was portrayed by her mother-in-law, the Princess of Wales. Mary piled on the jewels as part of her costume, and you’ll spot the Kensington Bow Brooch right in the middle of her bodice.

The Princess of Wales (Queen Mary)
The Princess of Wales, 1905 (Royal Collection/Wikimedia Commons)

In 1905, Mary (who was now Princess of Wales) wore the brooch pinned to her gown in this formal portrait, taken by W. and D. Downey. She paired the brooch with her Boucheron Loop Tiara, the Love Trophy Collar, and the County of Surrey Tiara (as a necklace).

King George V and Queen Mary
King George V and Queen Mary, 1911 (Wikimedia Commons)

The newly-crowned Queen Mary wore the brooch, again pinned to the bodice of her dress, in her official coronation portraits, too. It’s a little tough to pick out, but it’s right in the center of the bodice, pinned between two darker embroidered sections of the gown.

The Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen
The Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen in the Netherlands, March 1958 (Anefo/Nationaal Archief/Wikimedia Commons)

When Queen Mary died in 1953, she bequeathed the brooch (and most of the rest of her jewelry) to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Above, the young Queen wears the brooch for a banquet during her state visit to the Netherlands in March 1958. On that occasion, she wore it with the Vladimir Tiara, Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Necklace, and the Gloucester Pendant Earrings.

The Queen
The Queen in Estonia, 2006 (Chris Radburn/PA Images/Alamy)

Half a century later, she paired the tiara and the brooch once more during a state visit to Estonia in October 2006. This time around, she wore the tiara “widowed” (without pearl or emerald drops), and added the Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace and diamond earrings made from one of Queen Mary’s dismantled brooches.

The Queen
The Queen attends the Greek royal wedding reception at Hampton Court Palace, July 1995 (Sean Dempsey/PA Images/Alamy)

Though she often chooses the brooch for evening engagements, the Queen wears it for important daytime occasions, too. In July 1995, she wore the brooch for the wedding of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie-Chantal Miller in London.

The Queen attends the Festival of Remembrance, 2017 (STEFAN ROUSSEAU/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The brooch’s all-white color scheme makes it suitable for occasions of mourning and remembrance, too. In November 2017, she used the brooch to gather her poppies at the Festival of Remembrance.

The Queen attends the Queen Mother’s state funeral, April 2002 (FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP via Getty Images)

In the spring of 2002, she chose the brooch for an even more personal moment: the state funeral of her late mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. It seems like exactly the right choice, wearing a grand royal brooch (with a pendant drop!) for one of the royal women who loved brooches and jewelry so very much.

The Queen’s Rose Brooches

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Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images
Brooches depicting various flowers and plants make up a large part of the Queen’s extensive collection. Today, we’ve got a closer look at ten of the Queen’s rose brooches.

TOBY MELVILLE/AFP via Getty Images
This classic gold and diamond floral brooch has been in the Queen’s jewelry box since at least the 1960s. It features a single wild rose in a surround of leaves, and it’s been worn for garden parties, Commonwealth visits, and even a Christmas broadcast. Above, the Queen wears the brooch during a visit to Fortnum and Mason in London in March 2012.
THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images
This unusual Cartier brooch features a pair of coral rosettes, each studded with a diamond in the center of the blossom, accompanied by a pair of pave-set diamond leaves in white gold. Each rosette was carved from a single piece of red coral. The jewel was a gift from the Order of the Liberation in 1990, and the Queen has appropriately often worn it for occasions related to France. In 2004 (pictured above) she wore the brooch in Paris during a state visit celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Entente Cordiale.
Carl De Souza/Getty Images
The Diamond Rosette Brooch
This petite, button-style diamond rosette brooch has been worn by the Queen since at least 2004. The timing makes it possible that the brooch was part of her immense jewelry inheritance from the late Queen Mother, who passed away in 2002. Above, the Queen wears the rosette at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May 2004.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
The Tudor Rose Brooch
One of the most important symbols of the British monarchy is the Tudor Rose, representing their combined York and Lancaster heritage. The Queen has been wearing this particular diamond and ruby Tudor Rose Brooch with some regularity since 2012. Some think it might have been a Diamond Jubilee gift, possibly part of a quartet of national symbols given by the Sultan of Oman. Above, the Queen wears the brooch on Christmas Day in December 2014.
MARTYN HAYHOW/AFP/Getty Images
There are other Tudor Rose jewels in the Queen’s collection, too, including this unique brooch featuring a Tudor Rose and a thistle. It’s a symbol of the Scots Guards. The Queen has worn the brooch in public on a few occasions, including the presentation of new colours to the Scots Guards at Windsor Castle in April 2002 (pictured above).
Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool/Getty Images
This piece, which features a pair of wild roses rendered in warm-toned gold, is one of the newer brooches from the Queen’s collection. She began wearing it around the time of her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, and many have presumed that it may have been a gift from that period. In April 2016, pictured above, the Queen wore the brooch to open the Alexandra Gardens Bandstand in Windsor. More recently, she wore the brooch to Princess Beatrice’s wedding in July 2020.
The Vanguard Rose Brooch
This classic diamond brooch, featuring a wild rose among leaves and other blossoms and buds, has been in the Queen’s jewelry collection for nearly 80 years. It was given to her when she launched the HMS Vanguard in December 1944. The Liverpool Daily Post reported that the 18-year-old princess launched “the greatest battleship ever built in the British Isles,” adding that the “great naval occasion was the first important public duty the Princess has carried out alone.” The reporter also noted, “The Princess was given a diamond brooch fashioned as the rose of England for a souvenir. ‘This will always serve to remind me that the first important public duty I ever undertook was a naval occasion,’ she said.” She wore the brooch occasionally in the 1950s (including the appearance above, the presentation of the Princess Elizabeth Cup to Iris Kellet at the International Horse Show in July 1951), but today, the brooch presumably remains in the royal vaults.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
The Queen debuted this petite diamond rose brooch on Day Two of Royal Ascot in June 2016 (pictured above). Royal reporters on the day identified it as a diamond flower clip made by Cartier.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II commissioned this unique brooch from Collins and Sons as a 100th birthday present for the Queen Mother in 2000. The brooch features a hand-painted Queen Elizabeth Grandiflora Rose on a background of rock crystal, surrounded by a frame set with 100 diamonds. The Queen Mother wore it until her death in 2002, and now it’s a favorite piece of the Queen, especially for springtime events. In June 2016, pictured above, she wore the brooch for Day Four of Royal Ascot.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
In 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad presented the Queen with a suite of diamond jewelry from Cartier as a wedding present. The set included a tiara, which was later dismantled; these diamond rose brooches are all that remain from the tiara’s previous design. Above, the Queen wears the largest of the brooches in June 2017 for a recreation of Queen Victoria’s first train journey.
Andrew Milligan – WPA Pool/Getty Images
The Queen most often wears the largest of the three, but you’ll also occasionally see her wearing the smaller two together as a pair. In the photo above, the Queen wears the smaller brooches during a visit to Gorgie City Farm in Edinburgh in July 2019.

The Botswana Sorghum Brooch

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ANTHONY DEVLIN/AFP via Getty Images

The Queen debuted a whole collection of new brooches in 2014, including many of unknown or uncertain provenance. But we know exactly where this brooch, the Botswana Sorghum Brooch, came from — it’s all in the name!

FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP via Getty Images

The brooch, appropriately, was given to the Queen by President Mogae of Botswana in 2007. The gold and diamond jewel is made to resemble a delicate sheaf of sorghum, which is Botswana’s main crop.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

The Queen debuted the brooch in public seven years later. She wore it in June 2014 as she stepped off a train at the Gare du Nord in Paris, where she began a state visit to France linked to the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

In June 2015, she wore the brooch for one of her favorite annual events, Royal Ascot. On day four of the races, she pinned the sorghum brooch to a bright yellow coat. The combination of the gold, the yellow clothing, and the bright sunshine made it difficult to discern the details of the brooch during the carriage procession.

Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse

But later, as a cloud hovered briefly over the parade ring, the brooch stood out a bit more against its boldly-colored background.

Anthony Devlin – WPA Pool/Getty Images

One of the Queen’s most recent appearances in the sorghum brooch came in April 2017, when she wore it for the annual Royal Maundy Service. The service, held that year at Leicester Cathedral, may seem at first like an odd moment for the wearing of the brooch. But when you consider that sorghum is a cereal grain, and the occasion is the commemoration of the Last Supper, it makes a whole lot more sense.

ANTHONY DEVLIN/AFP via Getty Images

The golden brooch shone brightly against HM’s turquoise coat as she distributed Maundy money to 91 men and 91 women who had been chosen for their important acts of service to their communities.