June 24-30, 2016

We’ve got some really interesting pieces to marvel at this week — be sure to vote for your favorite in the poll below!

10. Queen Mathilde of the Belgians wore gold jewelry in Brussels on Wednesday for a ceremony for the Federal Poverty Reduction Prize.

9. Michelle Obama, America’s first lady, is on a trip this week to highlight the importance of literacy for girls and women. On Tuesday, Princess Lalla Salma welcomed her to Morocco while wearing gold jewelry, including a dramatic pair of hoop earrings.

8. Mrs. Obama also made a stop in Spain, where she met with Queen Letizia at Zarzuela Palace on Thursday. Letizia wore her Tous multicolored “Beethoven” earrings for the occasion.

7. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was on a mini-tour of her own this week in Northern Ireland. It’s a little tough to see here, but during a visit to Hillsborough Castle on Monday, she wore a lovely diamond clip brooch that she debuted last year at Newbury Racecourse.

6. The Duchess of Cambridge attended a ceremony marking the centenary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme on Thursday. She rewore the same mabe-pearl-style earrings that she debuted earlier this month at Trooping the Colour.

5. Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands traveled to Slovakia this week. At the presidential palace in Bratislava, she wore a beautiful pearl necklace with an intriguing clasp — which, I think, is set with a large gray pearl? She also donned gray pearl cluster earrings and a coordinating hat pin.

4. Beatrix brought out the amethysts to open Bratislava’s Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum on Thursday, including a gorgeous pair of earrings, a ring, a bracelet, a floral brooch, and a station necklace with a briolette pendant.

3. Queen Elizabeth II wore one of her most important brooches — the Cullinan V — for the Somme centenary vigil at Westminster Abbey on Thursday evening.

2. Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco also hosted a dinner for Michelle Obama in Marrakech on Tuesday. Her entire outfit is gorgeous and sparkling as usual, but I’m drooling over her pear-shaped earrings and her ring!

1. The winner for me this week: Queen Elizabeth II, who gave us a second outing for another mysterious piece of jewelry: the diamond brooch she debuted at a Commonwealth reception in 2014. This wearing gave us a much better look at the piece, although we still don’t know any specifics on the provenance.

Just because I love it (and all of you!) so much, here’s a close-up of the brooch. Also, here’s a link to a discussion at the Royal Jewels of the World Message Board, where there’s speculation that the five large diamonds in the brooch could be the ones given to the Queen when she opened the Graving Dock in East London in March 1947 (before she was married or a monarch!).