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The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Sundays with the Queen: The Queen’s Flower Basket Brooch

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Among the Queen’s enormous collection of brooches, there’s a number of pieces that have serious sentimental value. One of these is a brooch in the shape of a basket of flowers. It’s been in her jewelry box for almost 70 years.

The flower basket brooch — which Leslie Field notes is an example of what is sometimes called a “giardinetti,” or “little garden” — was given to the Queen in 1948 by her parents. It was a present to mark the birth of her first child, Prince Charles, who also happened to be a future heir to the throne.

The Queen, then still Princess Elizabeth, wore the brooch for Charles’s first official photograph. The black-and-white portrait doesn’t show off the true colorful joy of the brooch, as it’s set with diamonds as well as sapphires, rubies, and emeralds.

The brooch has become a regular part of HM’s jewel rotation, especially in recent years. And in 2013, she sentimentally chose the brooch for a very important family event: the christening of Prince Charles’s first grandchild, Prince George.

Sundays with the Queen: Elizabeth II’s Wedding Bracelet

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When Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten — or, as he was formerly known, His Royal Highness Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark — proposed to Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom in the 1940s, he had to find a way to present his bride with jewels appropriate for a future queen while earning a sailor’s paycheck.

Help came in the form of a diamond tiara owned by his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg. The piece was dismantled; some of the stones were used to create Elizabeth’s engagement ring, while others were used to make the piece we’re discussing today: the diamond bracelet he offered his new wife as a wedding present.

Philip went to a London-based jewelry firm, Philip Antrobus Ltd., to create the new diamond pieces in 1947. The engagement ring claimed a three-carat brilliant, plus several smaller stones; the new bracelet also includes three large brilliant-cut diamonds. The bracelet’s design is geometric, almost Art Deco-inspired. It features three large, square links connected by vertical sections. Like the engagement ring, the bracelet is set in platinum.

From the start, Elizabeth chose the new bracelet for significant white-tie events. Several of her early portraits feature the bracelet; she also chose it for her official Diamond Jubilee portraits in 2012. The Queen’s collection includes a number of diamond bracelets of a similar shape and size to this one, including Queen Mary’s chain link bracelets and the diamond and gold bracelet that belonged to Queen Victoria.

But while those other pieces have major historical and family importance, the sentimental value of this bracelet is pretty hard to deny. It’s no wonder that it has remained a staple in the Queen’s jewelry box for nearly seventy years.

Sundays with the Queen: The King Faisal Necklace

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Time for another new feature here at The Court Jeweller! Along with occasionally bringing you Sunday news updates, we’ll be delving into the extensive jewelry vaults of Buckingham Palace to marvel at pieces owned by Queen Elizabeth II. Today, we begin with one of my favorites: the King Faisal Diamond Necklace. Enjoy!

In May 1967, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia traveled to the United Kingdom for a state visit. He brought with him a rather glittering gift for Queen Elizabeth II: a diamond necklace, made in the 1950s by Harry Winston.

Faisal had purchased the necklace from the jeweler in March. The piece is set with more than 300 diamonds, including baguettes, brilliants, and eleven pear-shaped diamonds set as pendant stones. The stones are set in platinum, and the necklace features a combined weight of more than 80 carats of diamonds.

The King Faisal Necklace became a part of Elizabeth’s rotation of jewels for events like state banquets. She has paired the necklace with more than one tiara — often either the Vladimir Tiara or the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara.

In recent years, however, the Queen has frequently selected other diamond necklaces, including the King Khalid Necklace, for gala events. (This is just my speculation, but I wonder if the fact that the Faisal Necklace sits close to the throat makes it less than comfortable.) Instead, she has loaned the piece out to her daughters-in-law. Above, the Princess of Wales wears the Faisal Necklace in Australia in 1983.

Much more recently, the Countess of Wessex wore the Faisal Necklace at the dinner held the night before the wedding of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in 2012.