Today, we’ve got the last post in our week-long series on the joyas de pasar, the collection of Spanish royal jewels that passes from monarch to monarch. In this fifth and final installment, we’re taking a look at the brooches included in Queen Ena’s grand collection of royal jewels.

As we’ve noted in the previous posts from the series, the joyas de pasar collection was created by Queen Ena of Spain in her 1963 will. (You can read much more detail about the will and the language of inheritance regarding these jewels in this post.) The collection includes a tiara, a pair of earrings, a pair of bracelets, three necklaces, and two brooches.

The first brooch is described in the will as “un broche de brillantes del cual cuelga una perla en forma de pera llamada ‘La Peregrina,'” or, in English, a diamond brooch from which hangs a pear-shaped pearl called “La Peregrina.” Queen Ena believed that the pearl drop given to her by King Alfonso XIII was La Peregrina, one of the world’s most famous pearls. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. La Peregrina took a different historical path; the pearl drop from Queen Ena’s collection is often called “La Peregrina II” instead. In the painting above, Queen Ena wears La Peregrina II suspended from a diamond and pearl ribbon brooch. (The brooch is #4 in this collage image of Queen Ena’s wedding presents.) But later in life, Ena also wore La Peregrina II suspended from a diamond bow brooch, worn by her in this 1956 portrait. It seems quite likely that the bow brooch is the one described in her will.

That diamond bow brooch has yet to be worn by Queen Letizia, but it was worn by Queen Sofia during the reign of King Juan Carlos — but without La Peregrina II. She wore the pendant-less diamond bow to secure her order sash for the Argentine state dinner in Madrid in February 2009. (She’s also wearing the Spanish Floral Tiara and Queen Maria Cristina’s Mellerio Pearl Necklace.)

Queen Sofia also wore La Peregrina II frequently, but as a pendant on various pearl necklace (including the 37 Pearl Necklace) rather than suspended from a brooch. One of her last appearances in La Peregrina II came when she wore it with the 37 Pearl Necklace during the final state visit of her husband’s reign in June 2014. (Queen Letizia has yet to wear La Peregrina II in public.)

The second of the two joyas de pasar brooches is described in Queen Ena’s will as a “broche con perla grande gris pálido rodeada de brillantes y del cual cuelga una perla en forma de pera,” or a brooch with a large, pale gray pearl surrounded by diamonds, from which hangs a pear-shaped pearl. Originally, the top pearl was surrounded by a single row of diamonds; at some point during Ena’s lifetime, a second row was added to form a double cluster. In the portrait above, she wears the brooch with additional pearls and the Mellerio Shell Tiara.

Queen Sofia wore the gray pearl brooch often during her tenure as custodian of the joyas de pasar. Above, she wears the piece during a state dinner in Washington, D.C. in February 2000 — though she appears to have worn the cluster portion with La Peregrina II instead of the usual drop.

And in December 2009, she wore the brooch in its usual form with the 37 Pearl Necklace and the Spanish Floral Tiara during a gala dinner in Madrid for the President of Vietnam.

She also wore the cluster portion without any pendant at all, as seen in this photo, taken during the Japanese state visit to Spain in October 1994. (She’s also wearing Queen Ena’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara, her long pearl drop earrings — and I think that’s La Peregrina II on a pearl necklace.)

When King Felipe VI became Spain’s monarch in June 2014, Queen Letizia became the new wearer of the joyas de pasar collection. Though she has yet to wear La Peregrina II or the diamond bow brooch, she has worn the gray pearl brooch on one important occasion. She debuted the piece at the Pascua Militar celebrations in January 2019, pinning it to a tweed jacket. (More from that event, including a brooch close-up, over here!)

 

Our journey through the Spanish royal family’s grandest jewelry collection, the joyas de pasar, arrives today at a lovely section of the jewelry box: the joyas necklaces. Here’s a closer look at all three necklaces from Queen Ena’s important collection.

Queen Ena of Spain’s jewelry box housed a whole lot of necklaces, made of diamonds, pearls, and other gems. But in her will, she designated three necklaces in particular as part of the joyas de pasar collection, which was intended to pass directly from monarch to monarch.

The grandest and most recognizable of these necklaces is the diamond collet necklace, described in Ena’s will as “el collar de chatones más grande.” The necklace, which was worn by Ena in various lengths, was a wedding gift from her husband, King Alfonso XIII. Above, she wears the long diamond necklace with a shorter necklace made of emeralds inherited from Empress Eugenie of France. (You’ll also recognize two more pieces from the joyas collection in the portrait: the tiara and the earrings.)

Queen Ena also paired the diamond necklace with other suites of jewelry. Here, she wears it with her turquoise parure. The joyas necklace lines the bodice of her gown, which was designed by Worth. (She’s also wearing the joyas diamond earrings.) The length of the necklace changed various times during Ena’s tenure as its owner, and it has also changed in subsequent years, making it seem likely that collets can easily be removed from or added to the piece to alter the length.

Queen Sofia of Spain began wearing the necklace a few years into the reign of her husband, King Juan Carlos. (Why did she wait? It’s explained over here.) Above, she wears the necklace at the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark in May 2004. She also wears Queen Ena’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara, plus the joyas earrings and bracelets.

In June 2014, just before King Juan Carlos’s abdication, Queen Sofia wore the necklace for the final time. The occasion was a state banquet in Madrid in honor of the President of Mexico. She wore the necklace with several other joyas pieces: the tiara, the diamond earrings, and the diamond bracelets.

Though King Felipe and Queen Letizia inherited the joyas de pasar when he became monarch in 2014, she waited more than five years to wear the diamond necklace from the set in public. Her first outing in the piece came in October 2019, when she wore it for the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito of Japan in Tokyo. The necklace appeared to have been substantially shortened, and some of the extra collets used to make a matching bracelet. Along with the diamonds, she also wore Queen Sofia’s emerald earrings.

Along with the diamond necklace, the joyas de pasar collection also includes two pearl necklaces. The first is described in Ena’s will as “cuatro hilos de perlas grandes,” or four strands of large pearls. Queen Ena’s jewelry box was packed with pearl necklaces, and it’s never been clear to me precisely which four-stranded pearl necklace belongs to the joyas grouping. For example, she wears a four-stranded pearl necklace in the photo above, taken in 1912, but the pearls in the piece could hardly be described as “grandes.” I suspect that this four-stranded pearl necklace, worn with several other joyas pieces for a 1956 Life Magazine portrait, may be the actual necklace in question.

The third necklace from the collection is described much more precisely: “el collar con treinta y siete perlas grandes,” or a necklace made of 37 large pearls. This was another wedding present from King Alfonso XIII to Queen Ena. I believe this is the necklace she is wearing in the 1910 portrait painted by de László.

Pearl necklaces can be notoriously difficult to tell apart, but the size and precise length of this necklace makes it a little easier to identify. Above, Queen Sofia wears the necklace for Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural mass in April 2005.

Sofia often wore the necklace with another piece from the joyas collection: the pearl drop known as La Peregrina II. (Queen Ena confused the pearl with the real La Peregrina — more on that over here.) Though the pearl drop was part of a brooch in Queen Ena’s day, Queen Sofia has almost always worn it as a pendant on a necklace — quite often using it with the 37 Pearl Necklace. Above, she wears the two pieces together, along with pearl drop earrings, a diamond bow brooch, and the Mellerio Shell Tiara, during a gala dinner for the President of Mexico in October 2001.

And here, Queen Sofia wears the necklace with the pendant during the state visit to Japan in November 2008. She’s also wearing pearl drop earrings and, of course, La Buena.

In October 2018, Queen Letizia wore the 37 Pearl Necklace for the first time (without La Peregrina II) for an official dinner in Madrid in honor of the President of Germany. You’ll note that she wore the necklace with the diamond clasp deliberately showing, placing the largest pearls off to one side. In fact, the only pieces from the joyas collection that’s she’s still not worn are La Peregrina II and the four-strand pearl necklace!

 

Next up in our week-long series on the Spanish joyas de pasar: the gorgeous diamond cluster earrings! Here’s a closer look at this dazzling part of the collection.

As we’ve discussed in our posts this week on the Fleur-de-Lis Tiara and the Diamond Bracelets, the joyas de pasar are a collection of jewels that Queen Ena designated in her will to pass from monarch to monarch. In the will, these earrings are described as “un par de pendientes con un brillante grueso y brillantes alrededor” (a pair of earrings with a large diamond with a diamond border). Queen Ena received the earrings from her husband, King Alfonso XIII, as a wedding gift in 1906, and she wore them throughout his reign and, afterward, in exile.

The next Queen of Spain to wear the earrings was Queen Ena’s granddaughter-in-law, Queen Sofia. She wore the earrings mainly for gala occasions, including state banquets and royal weddings. Above, she wears them in June 2014 for the final state banquet of King Juan Carlos’s reign. (She’s also wearing the tiara and diamond necklace from the joyas collection in this photo.)

She also loaned the earrings to her daughter, Infanta Cristina, for her wedding. Cristina wore them with the Spanish Floral Tiara on her wedding day in 1997.

The collection passed to King Felipe and Queen Letizia when King Juan Carlos abdicated in June 2014. Even so, Queen Letizia waited almost three years to wear the jewels in public. She debuted the tiara, the earrings, and the bracelets at the Argentine state banquet in Madrid in February 2017.

A few months later, in July 2017, Queen Letizia made a splash in the joyas tiara, earrings, and bracelet at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace during the couple’s state visit to the United Kingdom.

Letizia has worn the earrings both with and without tiaras from the royal vaults. She let the earrings take center stage in November 2017 at the return dinner during the Israeli state visit to Madrid.

She’s also worn the earrings for two more significant tiara debut moments. In April 2018, she paired them with Queen Ena’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara for the Portuguese state banquet in Madrid…

…and in November 2018, she wore them with Queen Maria Cristina’s Diamond Loop Tiara for a banquet in Madrid in honor of the President of China.

The earrings added some extra meaningful sparkle for an important recent daytime event: the Order of the Garter service at Windsor Castle in June 2019. Queen Letizia attended the event with King Felipe, who was invested as a member of the chivalric order.

One of her most recent appearances in the earrings came in October 2019, when she wore them with La Buena during the enthronement celebrations for Emperor Naruhito of Japan.

And she repeated the same tiara and earrings for a gorgeous set of formal portraits released in February 2020. I expect we’ll see the gorgeous, impressive earrings on Queen Letizia for important occasions for the rest of her husband’s reign.