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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Sundays with the Queen: The South African Diamonds

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In 1947, just before she announced her engagement, the then-Princess Elizabeth went on a tour of South Africa with her parents and her sister. She celebrated her twenty-first birthday during the trip, and she received a pretty impressive birthday gift: diamonds!

At the end of a ball held on her birthday at Government House in Cape Town, South African prime minister Jan Smuts presented the princess with a diamond necklace made by Garrard. It featured twenty-one large brilliants, one for each of her twenty-one years, interspersed with smaller baguettes and brilliant stones, set in platinum. The largest diamond in the necklace weighs ten carats.

Hugh Roberts notes that the princess let out “unaffected exclamations of delight” when she was presented with the necklace. The present was improved upon even more when a detachable snap closure was added, using a six-carat diamond that had been given to Elizabeth three days before her birthday by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the chairman of De Beers.

In 1952, Garrard revised the necklace, shortening the piece. Five of the large brilliants were removed, as was the De Beers snap closure. Those stones were used by the jeweler to construct a bracelet to match the necklace. The necklace is now 40.5 centimeters long, and the bracelet measures 17 centimeters in length.

Even though they’re among the oldest pieces in her personal jewel collection, HM still wears the South African diamonds today.

They were an especially appropriate choice for the South African state visit to Britain in 2010, where she wore them at the state banquet.

Royal Jewel Rewind: Charles and Camilla’s Wedding (2005)

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Happy tenth wedding anniversary to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall! Time certainly flies — it seems impossible that this particular royal wedding was an entire decade ago. Let’s have a look at the jewels we saw on the day, shall we?

Charles and Camilla were married in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor, and Camilla wore a simple white suit and hat. Her jewelry for the first service was relatively simple. Her earrings are pearl drops attached to diamond button studs. The brooch pinned to the lapel of her Robinson Valentine jacket was a gift from Prince Charles. Made of diamonds surrounding a black pearl, the brooch is designed with a Prince of Wales feather motif. At the time of the wedding, newspapers reported that it was one of the jewels commissioned by King Edward VII for Camilla’s great-grandmother, Alice Keppel.

Camilla also wore bracelets with her civil ceremony outfit…

…and, of course, her engagement ring, which we discussed in detail here in yesterday’s post. Her Wartski-made wedding ring is composed of Welsh gold, as per British royal tradition.

The civil ceremony was followed by an Anglican blessing at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. For this service, Camilla changed into another Robinson Valentine creation, a long blue silk gown with delicate embroidery. The pattern embroidered on the dress was reportedly meant to echo the design of a piece of jewelry that had belonged to Camilla’s late mother. She also wore a fabulous gold feather headpiece by Philip Treacy. The ends of the feathers were tipped with Swarovski crystals.

With the blessing ensemble, Camilla wore a stunning pair of diamond earrings. These diamond floral earrings were also worn by her daughter, Laura Lopes, at her wedding the following year. Possibly the earrings are family heirlooms? (I’ve tried to compare them with the embroidery on the gown to decide whether or not the earrings are the jewels that inspired the pattern, but I’ve not found clear enough photos to decide whether they’re a match.)

The Queen wore a cream-colored outfit to the chapel for the blessing ceremony. With her usual pearl earrings and necklace, she wore the Golden Wattle Brooch, a piece given to her by the Australian people in 1954.

Charles’s sister, Princess Anne, wore one of her impressively-recycled outfits to the wedding. She accessorized with pearls and a gorgeous diamond floral brooch.

The Countess of Wessex chose a sentimental piece of jewelry for the wedding: a small diamond brooch of interlocking hearts, given to her by Prince Edward as a present on their first wedding anniversary.

Zara Phillips wore a dramatic hat, dress, and boots to the wedding; she also donned hoop earrings and a pendant necklace, as well as a large wristwatch.

No jewelry, as per usual, from Princess Beatrice of York, but she did wear one of my favorites of all of her fascinators.

Princess Eugenie also went sans jewels.

But the Duchess of Kent, who is sitting behind Camilla’s daughter, Laura, went with major pearls for the occasion.

The other Kent ladies, Princess Alexandra and Princess Michael, also wore significant jewelry. Alexandra has a lovely brooch tucked into the neckline of her blouse, while Marie-Christine chose exaggerated floral accessories and large pearls.

Marie-Christine’s daughter, Lady Gabriella Windsor, let the embroidery on her jacket do most of the accessory work, though she also wore a pair of earrings.

Serena Linley paired pearls with her fuchsia fascinator…

…and her sister-in-law, Lady Sarah Chatto, went with pearls as well.

Few foreign royals attended this low-key royal wedding, and those who did were there largely because of their personal ties to Charles. He’s close to Constantine and Anne-Marie of Greece, for example.With her pearls, the former Greek queen a sapphire and diamond brooch. I believe this is the same piece she wore in 1989 at her silver wedding anniversary party.

The other foreign royals attending were the Norwegian crown princely couple. They’re actually the foreign royals with the closest family ties to the current queen. Crown Prince Haakon’s grandfather, King Olav, was the son of a British princess; he was actually born on the Sandringham estate. Crown Princess Mette-Marit wore a lovely brooch to the wedding. I can’t recall seeing her wear it before or since (if I’m wrong, you know the drill — let me know in the comments!), but I’d be curious to know whether it might have connections to Queen Maud, given the occasion and its design.

Royal Jewel Rewind: Camilla’s Engagement Ring

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Ten years ago this week, the Prince of Wales married his longtime partner, Camilla Parker Bowles, in Windsor. Tomorrow, we’ll mark their wedding anniversary with a look back at the jewels worn on the big day, but today, let’s have a look at the stone that started off the festivities: the engagement ring.

On February 10, 2005, Buckingham Palace announced that Charles and Camilla were engaged. The wedding was originally set for April 8, though it had to be moved to the following day after the death of Pope John Paul II. The future Duchess of Cornwall stepped out with her prince at Windsor Castle that evening and showed off her engagement ring.

ITN called it “a ring worth waiting for.” Camilla revealed to reporters that Charles got down on one knee to present her with the eight-carat emerald-cut diamond, which is flanked by six diamond baguettes and set in platinum. Reportedly dating to the 1920s, the ring was from the jewelry collection of Charles’s beloved grandmother, the Queen Mum.

The ring isn’t, however, the Queen Mum’s own engagement ring. She received a sapphire ring from the future King George VI when he proposed. Later in life, the sapphire ring was replaced with a pearl. Camilla’s ring is another diamond ring from the Queen Mother’s extensive jewel collection. She wears it above in a photograph taken in 1986.