From Her Majesty's Jewel Vault: Origin Duchess of Teck

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12 August 2015

The Teck Crescent Tiara

The Teck Crescent Tiara

The Teck Crescent Tiara came from Queen Mary's mother, The Duchess of Teck, who in turn created it from jewels inherited from her aunt, Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester. It ended up in the possession of Queen Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother), likely given to her by Queen Mary. It includes three wild roses and twenty crescent shapes in diamonds, with each element able to be removed for use in a brooch style. The tiara was inherited by The Queen when The Queen Mother passed away, in 2002. According to The Queen's Diamonds by Hugh Roberts, this tiara has been loaned to The Duchess of Cornwall, though we have yet to see her wear it. It hasn't been worn in public for decades, perhaps not since the 1940s.

Read more at Order of Splendor.

Photo: Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother/Munn

11 April 2015

The Duchess of Teck's Flower Brooch

The Duchess of Teck's Flower Brooch

This brooch is best known for its association with Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, but its history goes back to the mid-19th century. According to Hugh Roberts in The Queen's Diamonds, it belonged to Queen Mary's mother, Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck (1833-1897), and may have been among the jewels she inherited from her aunt Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester. There is a central brooch with fairly large individual diamonds set in a floral design and a series of four pendants that hang below, the longest one hanging from a diamond chain.

Queen Elizabeth wearing the brooch, as Duchess of York and later as Queen Mother

The Duchess of Teck's will left the brooch to her eldest son, Adolphus (according to Roberts), but it ended up with Queen Mary. Mary gave it to her son, The Duke of York, to give as part of his wedding gift to his bride, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, in 1923. He also gave her a pearl and diamond necklace of a Greek key design which was later transformed into the Lotus Flower Tiara she is wearing in the left photo above.

View image | gettyimages.com

During her early days, as Duchess of York, she was pictured wearing this brooch in a series of formal portraits with tiara on. In her later years, it became a favorite choice for her day engagements. Following The Queen Mother's death in 2002, it was inherited along with the rest of her property by The Queen.

It has not, however, become one of The Queen's favorites. I believe she has worn it just once so far, for a portrait by Lord Snowdon (pictured on the magazine cover above). That's probably not too surprising, since brooches with complicated pendants are among the things that she tends to avoid these days.

Photos: Illustrated London Times/DR/Allan Warren via Wikimedia Commons/via Getty Images/RadioTimes

18 February 2013

The Round Cambridge Emerald Brooch

The Round Cambridge Emerald Brooch

The fraternal twin brooch to the Scroll Cambridge Emerald Brooch is this one, with a round cabochon Cambridge emerald surrounded by rows of diamonds and another Cambridge emerald suspended as a pendant.

The Duchess of Teck

Unlike other Cambridge emerald jewels in the collection, this one wasn't crafted especially for the Delhi Durbar. The round cabochon emerald surrounded by two rows of diamonds and the pear-shaped emerald pendant were in use when the Duchess of Teck owned the Cambridge set. She used them as detachable pieces on a stomacher she'd bought from Garrard; the diamond stomacher (which was also used with sapphires, or no additional pieces) passed to her son Adolphus and was worn by his wife Princess Alice.

Queen Mary

The emeralds, as we know, ended up with Queen Mary, and she often pinned the brooch and pendant below the Delhi Durbar Stomacher. She also wore it on its own, which is how it has been used since the Queen inherited it in 1953.

The brooch without the pendant

The top portion can be worn without the pendant, but the Queen almost always wears the brooch with the pendant attached.

21 June 2012

The Teck Corsage Brooch

The Teck Corsage Brooch

Composed of a central large pearl surrounded by braided rows of diamonds with twelve collets around the exterior and a removable pendant chain of collets with three pendant pearls, this brooch is popularly known as the Teck Corsage Brooch. The newest publication on the Queen’s jewels, Hugh Roberts’ The Queen’s Diamonds, elaborates on this jewel and gives it a different name: The Duchess of Teck’s Emperor of Austria Brooch.

Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck

It was given to the Duchess of Teck, mother of Queen Mary, by the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria when he was named godfather of her son Prince Francis. It later ended up in Queen Mary's collection (after likely being inherited by her brother Francis and then probably by his mistress after his untimely death) and passed to the Queen when Mary died in 1953.

Queen Elizabeth II

This brooch seems to have been more popular with the Queen in her younger years. When it appeared during the 2011 state visit from the United States, it hadn't been seen in some years. The Queen then used it in its simpler form, without the chain, at Ascot in 2012.

Without the lower chain and pendants

Appearances:
24 June 2015: State Visit to Germany
21 June 2012: Royal Ascot, Day Three
2011: State Visit from the United States, State Banquet
1984: Christmas Broadcast
1967: Chelsea Flower Show
1965: State Visit to Germany
1963: Wedding of Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy
1961: Commonwealth Visit to India and Pakistan

Photos: Leslie Field/Getty Images

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