The Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch

Attending an event at Canada House to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada's confederation today, The Queen added another brooch to her collection to celebrate her own milestone anniversary.

The Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch
Sgt Johanie Maheu, Rideau Hall

The Governor-General of Canada, David Johnston, presented The Queen with the Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch from Canada. The brooch recognizes Her Majesty's Sapphire Jubilee in 2017, marking 65 years on the throne.

Sgt Johanie Maheu, Rideau Hall

Appropriately, it does so with sapphire stones. The sapphires contained in the brooch come from a deposit of sapphires discovered in 2002 on near Kimmirut on Baffin Island by brothers Seemeega and Nowdluk Aqpik. Coming from Canada's only known deposit of sapphires, these Beluga sapphires are stones that have a natural blue color that does not require heat to enhance.

Hillberg & Berk

The brooch includes 48 sapphires of varying sizes, shapes, and colors, weighing 10.19 carats in total. The blue stones are arranged with the darkest blue colors at the center, surrounding a diamond dome. The sapphires fade into lighter colors as they approach the edge of the brooch, creating an ombré effect. The stones are surrounded by more than 400 diamonds from northern Canada, weighing 4.39 carats in total, and the brooch is set in 18K Canadian white gold.

Hillberg & Berk

The design, inspired by the Canadian Arctic, is a one-of-a-kind snowflake shaped like the North Star. The brooch was designed and crafted by Hillberg & Berk. The Canadian jewelers also created the Saskatchewan Tourmaline Flower Brooch that was gifted to The Queen in 2013. The center diamond dome around which the snowflake is based is a special Hillberg & Berk touch, recalling their signature Sparkle Ball collection.

Hillberg & Berk

The Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch measures 61 mm tall and 66 mm wide, or about 2.5 inches square. It's slightly larger than the Maple Leaf Brooch, which is 55 mm x 50 mm, and is right in the size range of The Queen's usual favorite brooches.

The Queen receives the brooch at Canada House from the Governor-General
Royal Family

The Queen smiled as she received this stunning brooch in its beautiful wooden box, and waited until the following year to debut it. She has worn her other Hillberg & Berk brooch on several occasions, and I hope she will be just as fond of this one.

Appearances:
18 August 2019: Church at Balmoral
18 June 2019: Royal Ascot, Day 1
21 May 2019: Buckingham Palace Garden Party
14 July 2018: Visit from The King and Queen of the Belgians

The Duchess of Cornwall's Van Cleef & Arpels Snowflake Earrings and Pendant Necklace

The Duchess of Cornwall's impressive collection of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry has grown once again. For the Spanish state visit, she debuted a pair of the maison's Snowflake Earrings, a part of their Snowflake High Jewelry collection inspired by (what else?) flakes of snow.

Van Cleef & Arpels Snowflake Earrings, Large Model

The earrings come in large and small sizes; The Duchess of Cornwall has the large model. These earrings are made of round diamonds in platinum and white gold. They have 190 stones and weigh in at approximately 13.73 carats. Van Cleef & Arpels lists their retail price at $138,000; Luxury Exchange has a pair for sale at $82,645.

The Duchess wears them at the Spanish state banquet, 2017

As with most of Camilla's VC&A items, provenance is unconfirmed but I assume they were acquired by either Camilla herself or by The Prince of Wales. What we do know is that these sparkled like mad in action - which is a wonderful surprise when it comes to The Duchess of Cornwall, whose hair often hides the earrings below. They're a great fit for her.

Snowflake Earrings and Pendant with Snowflake Chain

Snowflake Pendant, Large model

In 2018, The Duchess debuted a matching necklace. It is the Pendant with Snowflake chain; this also comes in large and small models, and Camilla has the large model. Made with 85 round diamonds totaling approximately 6.05 carats, and platinum, the necklace retails for $71,000.

Appearances:
12 July 2017: State Visit from Spain, State Banquet

Grenfell Tower Relief Center Visit and Audiences at Buckingham Palace (Plus, a New Brooch!)

The Queen and The Duke of Cambridge visited a relief center for victims of this week's Grenfell Tower fire in London.

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These two make a great team, and this brooch was a great choice. The City of London Lily Brooch was a gift to Princess Elizabeth in 1947 when she was granted the Freedom of the City. It's not a common selection for The Queen (we last saw it in 2012, the only time it has been worn since this blog started) so it feels like an intentional bit of London pride.

City of London Lily Brooch

Queen Mary's Button Earrings

Three Strand Pearl Necklace

The Queen also held an audience at Buckingham Palace.

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This is the dress that goes under her blue coat from the relief center visit, with a different brooch. My original thought here was the Diamond Art Deco Double Clip. The shape is also close to the Triple Diamond Bar Brooch, but I'm calling it for the Double Clip.

This audience was with the Czech president and his family, and - unless Google translate is doing me wrong here - I believe Her Majesty picked up another brooch for her collection.

Dary pana prezidenta a jeho paní pro J. V. královnu Alžbětu II. Brož s českými granáty a hedvábný šátek s motivem díla Václava Hollara. pic.twitter.com/wdie76H1U1

— Jiří Ovčáček (@PREZIDENTmluvci) June 16, 2017

A Bohemian garnet brooch and a silk scarf! The brooch has four rows of garnets and the comments on that tweet point out that a very similar model is available for purchase at this web shop.

The Queen Mother's Lily Brooch

Queen Elizabeth kept some loose diamonds at Cartier, the jewelry firm where she and her husband, King George VI, were regular patrons. In 1939, jewelers were commissioned to create a floral brooch with a lily motif from some of those stones.

Queen Elizabeth wears her Lily Brooch, 1951
British Pathe, see video here

The result is one of the longer brooches in the royal collection. Popularly referred to as the "foot long" brooch (actual measurement: around 6.75 inches long), it contains just over 200 of Queen Elizabeth's own diamonds plus an additional 52 added by Cartier. The piece is shown in detail in The Queen's Diamonds by Hugh Roberts, where it is noted that joints in the thin stem originally allowed the brooch to be worn in different positions, but these have since been fixed in place.

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The Queen debuts the brooch, 2010

The Queen Mother's use of the brooch seems to have been most heavily concentrated in the 1950s. It passed to The Queen in 2002, and she first wore it for the South African state banquet in 2010. Unfortunately, with her fondness for white evening dresses, the real scale and design of the brooch blended into the background.

Royal Images via Ministry of Defence

Now, in 2017, we have a chance to really admire the brooch. An official portrait included in the program for the Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial unveiling shows the true scale and magnificent detail of Queen Elizabeth's Lily Brooch. It's much larger than the brooches The Queen wears for daily engagements, and is probably difficult to place, but it makes an impressive statement.

Thanks to David for the tip! 

Appearances: 
2010: State Visit from South Africa