The Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara

The Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara
Boucheron

Boucheron made this tiara for Mrs. Greville in 1919, featuring brilliant and rose cut diamonds pavé-set in platinum with a central 93.70 carat emerald and six emeralds on either side. It was left to Queen Elizabeth (later The Queen Mother) as part of the Greville bequest in 1942. The tiara later passed to The Queen and it remained unworn by the Royal Family until 2018, when it was loaned to Princess Eugenie for her wedding day.

Read about the tiara's full story here, at Order of Splendor.

Appearances: 
12 October 2018: The Wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank

The Greville Bow Brooch

Looking at the contents of the Greville bequest, it's immediately notable how few of the Greville jewels can be identified, and it's immediately hard not to imagine what wonders may have gone unworn since the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville left her treasures to Queen Elizabeth in 1942. The case of the Greville Bow Brooch makes such speculation even harder to resist.

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Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, wearing the Greville Bow Brooch

At a Royal Film Performance in 1961, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother wore an enormous diamond bow brooch. This may have been the only time she wore it in public. It didn't surface again until the 2012 publication of The Queen's Diamonds by Hugh Roberts, where you can find it beautifully pictured in its full glory with even more information.

Video: The 1961 Royal Film Performance

Roberts traces the brooch back to a 1900 commission from Boucheron by Mrs. Greville, who had a diamond tiara dismantled and made into another tiara (perhaps the one that would ultimately become what we know as the Greville Tiara) and what was probably this bow brooch. The large stones and large size would have fit right in with the rest of Mrs. Greville's collection, which was inherited by Queen Elizabeth in 1942.

When Queen Elizabeth died in 2002, the brooch was inherited by The Queen. It has yet to reappear in public. Given that the brooch is larger than most of the brooches in use by the royal family, it's not surprising that it has been left in its box. Still, it's certainly a jewel made to make a statement, and I hope we'll see that statement made again sometime in the future.

Photos: via Getty Images,  British Pathe screencaps

The Greville Emerald Necklace

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother wearing 
the Greville Emerald Necklace

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother owned a show-stopping emerald and diamond necklace created from clusters of square or rectangular emeralds surrounded by diamonds with a central pendant, a jewel that appears in basic design as a green counterpart to the Crown Ruby Necklace she loved so much. The necklace was reportedly part of the Greville bequest, which makes sense because it did not appear until after her 1942 inheritance of the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville's jewels (Queen Elizabeth began wearing it in the late 1940s/early 1950s), and because Mrs. Greville was known to have had an impressive collection of emeralds.

1972: During the Dutch state visit

Other details about the necklace are complicated, but there are a few mentions of items from Mrs. Greville's collection that could apply. Boucheron: The Secret Archives by Vincent Meylan mentions the firm's valued client bringing one small and one large emerald necklace to the firm to be made into one, which may or may not refer to this necklace. Most commonly associated with this jewel are some powerful potential provenances: society reports of the day mention an emerald necklace said to have belonged to Empress Joséphine, and a diamond necklace allegedly from Queen Marie Antoinette.

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1950: Worn with Queen Mary's Fringe Tiara

The Queen's Jewels by Leslie Field swaps those descriptions, identifying The Queen Mother's necklace as an 18th century emerald necklace from Marie Antoinette. Consequently, you will see either provenance -  Empress Joséphine or Marie Antoinette, with Marie Antoinette probably more common - repeated. (I'm inclined to believe that the Marie Antoinette necklace was diamond and not emerald as per those contemporary reports, which Mrs. Greville was prone to planting herself. But it should be noted either way that both provenances are fairly frequently claimed and not nearly as frequently proven.)

If indeed The Queen Mother's necklace corresponds to those reports, it wouldn't be the only serious emerald necklace in the royal collection with such a rumored provenance: the Godman Necklace was said to have belonged to Empress Joséphine, a connection that was unsupported by research.

1959: During a state visit from the Shah of Iran
(Also interesting in this video: An early - if not the earliest - appearance of the Poltimore Tiara on Princess Margaret, a year before she married)

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Greville Emerald Necklace was regularly seen on The Queen Mother during state visits and at other important occasions, such as her goddaughter Princess Benedikte of Denmark's 1968 wedding. She often wore the necklace with the Greville Tiara and a pair of emerald pendant earrings also from the Greville bequest. Its last appearance may have been in 1990, when she wore it in a birthday portrait. The Queen inherited her mother's necklace in 2002, and we are still waiting for it to make a magnificent reappearance.

Appearances:
1972: State Visit from the Netherlands
1958: State Visit from Germany 

Photos: British Pathe screencap, ANP Archief/Central Photo, via Getty Images

The Greville Bequest, Part 2

In 1942, the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville left her jewelry collection to Queen Elizabeth (later The Queen Mother), "with my loving thoughts." Part 1 of our look at the Greville bequest filled in the background on Margaret Greville and her association with the royal family. It's an important thing to understand, because her jewelry collection directly reflected her personality and societal aspirations. In Part 2, we'll look at her jewels, what we know made it into that bequest, and what we don't know.


Mrs. Greville's ambition to be the top hostess in society meant she needed not only the finest food for her guests and the finest surroundings in which to host them, but also the finest jewels to wear while dazzling in her hostess duties. In her later years, Margaret Greville wasn’t known for her beauty and she was no fashion model, but she was hard to beat when she decked herself out in her best gems. The considerable fortune left to her by her father gave her the resources to assemble a noteworthy collection, and her competitive side assured that she had only the best. (Her snobbery certainly extended to the jewels of others. During one gathering, one of her guests discovered that she'd lost the biggest diamond in her necklace. While the rest of her guests got down on their hands and knees to help search for the stone, Mrs. Greville simply reached for a magnifying glass, offering it with a shady note: "Perhaps this will be of assistance?" The largest gems of others were surely tiny compared to Mrs. Ronnie’s own jewels.)

Margaret Greville
V&A

She was drawn to jewels with powerful provenances just as she was drawn to powerful people themselves. Among pieces said to have been in her collection were a diamond necklace rumored to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, emeralds reported to have come from Empress Joséphine, and a diamond ring with alleged ties to Catherine the Great.

Other accounts of her collection list pieces of great variety. Mrs Ronnie by Siân Evans mentions several items, drawing from society reports of the day: a sapphire necklace, a wide diamond bandeau to wear on the head, diamond stars from her husband as a wedding gift, other wedding gifts including a diamond tiara from her father and an emerald bracelet, a collection of black diamonds, an enamel and diamond bracelet from India, ropes of pearls, tremendous amounts of diamonds and emeralds, and more. Boucheron by Vincent Meylan describes additional jewels commissioned by Margaret Greville, including spectacular diamond necklaces, a valuable pair of large pearl earrings, and others. Then there were, of course, the large diamond tiara and the magnificent five strand diamond necklace we know today.

Queen Elizabeth in 1950, wearing the Greville Tiara as it was when she received it, the Greville Festoon Necklace, and perhaps the Greville Peardrop Earrings
British Pathe video

She was a loyal and important customer of both Boucheron and Cartier, where she maintained a steady stream of commissions including maintenance for her existing collection. A long necklace of 210 pearls and multiple other pearl necklaces were sent to Boucheron yearly for restringing, for example. She also had her older pieces redesigned regularly, keeping her current in jewelry trends. What we know today as the Greville Tiara was redesigned more than once, as were other pieces. Her penchant for updates means that any of the pieces listed above may or may not have still been in existence when she left them to Queen Elizabeth.

As a regular guest of Mrs. Ronnie's, Queen Elizabeth would have had a sense of what was coming her way. In fact, she seems to have already been a recipient of the Greville jewel generosity: Evans reports a three strand pearl necklace was given to Queen Elizabeth in 1936, one said to have been worn frequently in the war years. (These may have been the pearls she referred to in 1944. Writing to Princess Elizabeth in the event that "I get 'done in' by the Germans!", she requested that "Mrs. Greville's pearls" be given to Princess Margaret. It seems there would have been more strands of pearls in the final bequest as well.)

Queen Elizabeth wearing the Greville Tiara and the Greville Peardrop Earrings
Portrait by Richard Stone, via Wikimedia Commmons

The Queen received word of Mrs. Greville's final gift quickly. Margaret Greville died on September 15, 1942; on September 30th, Queen Elizabeth wrote to her husband to tell him the news of the will, mentioning that the gifts of jewels to her and money to Princess Margaret would be free of death duties. Queen Mary was soon informed:

"I must tell you that Mrs Greville has left me her jewels, tho' I am keeping that quiet as well for the moment! She left them to me 'with her loving thoughts', dear old thing, and I feel very touched. I don't suppose I shall see what they consist of for a long time, owing to the slowness of lawyers & death duties etc, but I know she had a few good things. Apart from everything else, it is rather exciting to be left something, and I do admire beautiful stones with all my heart. I can't help thinking that most women do!" 

- Queen Elizabeth, writing to Queen Mary 

"How kind of Mrs. Greville to leave you her jewels, and she had some lovely pearls and nice emeralds too I think. [...] I can understand your pleasure about the jewels, you are right not to say anything about them. [...] I never had any such luck - but I am not really jealous, I just mention this as it came into my mind!" 

- Queen Mary's response to Queen Elizabeth 

The two queens discussed keeping the gift quiet, but it wasn't a secret for long. Speculation over the fate of Mrs. Greville's wealth - including those jewels, for which she was well known - ran high. The will was made public, and the gift of jewels to Queen Elizabeth was discussed in news reports of the day.

By 1947, the Greville jewelry was in use by the royal family. Queen Elizabeth wore the Greville Tiara during the royal family's visit to South Africa that year; during the same visit, the Greville Ivy Clips were gifted to Princess Elizabeth for her 21st birthday. Later that year, the Greville Chandelier Earrings and the Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau Necklace were given to Princess Elizabeth as wedding gifts. A reluctance on the part of George VI for his family to use jewels obtained in this fashion is sometimes claimed (perhaps without much source), but the more logical reason for the relatively short delay was probably sensitivity to the war and post-war austerity.

The Queen, as Princess Elizabeth, wearing the Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau Necklace
Wikimedia Commmons

Even as the jewels were put to use, the true origins of these "new" pieces often remained private. The Greville Tiara - the most recognized piece in the bequest, and an instant favorite of The Queen Mother's - was commonly referred to as a new commission by The Queen Mother for several decades. The Queen's Diamonds by Hugh Roberts, published in 2012, newly revealed the Greville background of other familiar pieces.

The complete contents of that black tin box marked with the initials M.F.G. are still emerging more than seven decades later. An inventory of the complete contents of the Greville bequest has never been made public. The best approximation of its total size comes from the Roberts book, which places the collection at over sixty pieces.

The Queen in the Greville Chandelier Earrings

Yet, the jewels we can identify as having come from the Greville bequest number nowhere near sixty items, not even if you include items with the most speculative of ties. Perhaps other pieces familiar to us came from the bequest and we do not yet know; perhaps there are still unused items waiting for a royal debut. (An emerald tiara described in the aforementioned Boucheron book, for example, remained unworn by any member of the Royal Family - and thus an unconfirmed part of the bequest - until 2018.) Both may be true, and it would not surprise me in the least. (If there's one thing the royal family is good at, it's keeping us guessing.)

Pieces that have been identified as Greville jewels formed a key part of the collection worn by Queen Elizabeth in her years as The Queen Mother. All remaining items from the bequest in her collection on her death in 2002 went to The Queen with the rest of her possessions. These items are today worn by The Queen and by The Duchess of Cornwall on loan from Her Majesty - a fitting association, given that Camila's grandmother, Sonia Keppel, was Mrs. Greville's much-beloved goddaughter.

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The Duchess of Cornwall in the Greville Tiara and the Greville Festoon Necklace

Listed below are jewels associated with the Greville bequest. Some are confirmed, and some are only the source of speculation (click the pictures or links to read more on each piece.) It includes only jewels that have been covered on this blog to date.

Items of additional Greville speculation:

• The Duchess of Cornwall's Engagement Ring: The origins of this ring are debated. Some suspect the Greville bequest, many disagree. 
• The Queen Mother's Ruby and Diamond Floral Clips: Usually said to have been part of the bequest,  but new information disagrees. (See the entry for more.)

The Greville Bequest, Part 1

You don't need to dig for long into the history of the Windsor jewel collection before you run into the Greville name. The "Greville bequest" is a collection of jewelry left to Queen Elizabeth, later The Queen Mother, by the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville in 1942. In an attempt to add some background to the name which appears regularly in our jewel features, we are going to dig deeper into the Greville legacy in two parts: Part 1 on Mrs. Greville herself, who she was and what led her to leave her jewelry to Queen Elizabeth, and Part 2 on her collection and just what that famed bequest included.

The Hon. Mrs Ronald Greville
Painted by Carolus-Duran

Born in 1863, Margaret "Maggie" Helen Anderson was the illegitimate daughter of Helen Anderson and William McEwan, a wealthy Scottish brewer and eventual Member of Parliament. Her birth certificate includes a different father’s name, and it's been said that Helen Anderson was married to an employee of McEwan's brewery at the time of the birth. However, Siân Evans' biography of Mrs. Greville, Mrs Ronnie, disputes this oft-repeated claim with evidence that Helen was not married at the time. For the rest of her life, Maggie would gloss over the specific circumstances of her birth and her early years.

William McEwan and Helen Anderson eventually married in 1885. Margaret’s new position as the heiress to the millions McEwan made with his beer business helped override some of the suspicion about her position as his "step-daughter" and gave her a start in society that her birth did not provide. She married the Hon. Ronald Greville, eldest son of the 2nd Baron Greville and later a Member of Parliament, in 1891. "Ronnie" was a close friend of The Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII. Maggie became a best friend of Alice Keppel, Edward's favorite mistress. The Greville’s marriage was a happy one, but also sadly a short one: Mr. Greville died suddenly in 1908 at the age of 43. They had no children.

Mr. and Mrs. Greville, circa 1900
Bystander/Wikimedia Commons

Margaret Greville's marriage whet her appetite for hosting society's headliners and collecting powerful friends, and she continued on that path in her widowhood. Grand entertaining became her defining characteristic. She hosted dinner parties in London, and fabulous weekend parties in the country at Polesden Lacey. The Grevilles had purchased their country estate before Ronnie's untimely death and refurbished it completely, including a special suite to accommodate Edward VII's visits.

Edward VII was just the start of the list of royals Mrs. Greville would host. She may have proclaimed that she'd "rather be a beeress than a peeress!", but she certainly desired the company of the elite as she aimed to outpace rival society hostesses. She entertained royals from Egypt and the deposed Spanish and Greek monarchies; she sought the company of ambassadors and those with political power; she stayed in the good graces of the British royal family after Edward VII’s death by becoming a good friend to Queen Mary, perhaps bonding over their shared passion for grand jewels and other exquisite objects. In 1922, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Polesden Lacey
Geograph project/Martyn Davies/Wikimedia Commons

She offered to leave Polesden Lacey to one of George V's children (a move that further secured her position as a close friend of the royal family, it must be noted). The lucky recipient was to be Prince Albert, The King and Queen's second son, and Mrs. Greville encouraged the courtship and engagement of "Bertie" and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. The future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth honeymooned at Polesden Lacey in 1923 and remained close friends with "Mrs. Ronnie" until her death.

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The Duke and Duchess of York on their honeymoon at Polesden Lacey

Mrs. Greville’s personality was generally described as larger than life. She was a gossip to the core, and never short of opinions. She was also generally described as a snob - "a galumphing, greedy, snobbish old toad who watered her chops at the sight of royalty and the Prince of Wales’s set, and did nothing for anybody except the rich," as Cecil Beaton put it - and her desire to remain at the top of society seemed to motivate many of her actions. To those she favored, she was a good friend; to those she did not care for, she could be malicious.

Polesden Lacey in 1923
Illustrated London News/Wikimedia Commons

Her social ambition wasn't the only mark against her. She held pro-German sympathies in the early 1930s, even visiting the new Nazi Germany and seeking an audience with Hitler. It's likely that she did not fully understand the full extent of the Nazi mission, and she had dropped her support well before Britain declared war, but her reputation had already suffered from the association. She ordered her personal papers destroyed after her death, concealing her private thoughts on the matter.

Controversial and unfavorable notes aside, to the royals whose company she so desired, she was a good friend. She died on September 15, 1942 at the Dorchester Hotel, where she spent the last part of her life, refusing to leave London despite the dangers of German bombing.

"I shall miss her very much indeed [...], she was so shrewd, so kind, so amusingly unkind, so sharp, such fun, so naughty [...], and altogether a real person, a character, utterly Mrs Ronald Greville and no tinge of anything alien." 

– Queen Elizabeth, writing after Mrs. Greville’s death 

With no children and no close family remaining, Mrs. Greville's estate – which totaled more than £1.5 million - was divided primarily between charity and friends, including loyal staff and some of the royals she adored. Princess Margaret received £20,000, and Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain received another substantial amount. Money was also left to her godchildren, including Sonia Keppel, grandmother of The Duchess of Cornwall.

Polesden Lacey's Drawing Room, 1923
Illustrated London News/Wikimedia Commons

In what apparently came as a surprise to the royal family, she decided not to leave Polesden Lacey to The King and Queen. She changed her will and left the estate to the National Trust instead, so that it could be opened to the public. Hearing the estate went to the Trust instead, Queen Elizabeth said "perhaps it is just as well, things being as they are," and that it would likely be a "very difficult place to keep up."

Margaret Greville, circa 1920
Bookham Bulletin/Wikimedia Commons

Mrs. Greville left a different surprise for the royal family: she bequeathed her magnificent collection of jewelry to Queen Elizabeth, "with my loving thoughts." The only pieces of jewelry that did not go to Queen Elizabeth were those with a value of under £100, which were designated for Mrs. Greville’s longtime maid.

Contained within the Greville bequest were pieces destined to become favorites of Queen Elizabeth, and pieces that are still worn today by the women of the royal family. Mrs. Greville's generosity served to permanently tie her name to one of the most spectacular parts of royalty, which seems to have been just the way she would have liked it.

Click here for part 2, on Mrs. Greville's passion for jewelry and the jewels from the bequest.

For more on Mrs. Greville:

• I highly recommend Mrs Ronnie: The Society Hostess Who Collected Kings by Siân Evans. It's an enjoyable read with a balanced take on its subject. The author was granted permission by The Queen to use material from the Royal Archives.
• Counting One's Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by William Shawcross includes some of Queen Elizabeth's thoughts on Mrs. Greville (and the bequest) in her own words.
• Polesden Lacey near Dorking, Surrey, is still operated by the National Trust and is open to the public.
• The Queen's Diamonds by Hugh Roberts, an authorized account of selected jewelry in the royal collection, includes a section on Queen Elizabeth and confirmation of certain Greville jewels.
• Boucheron: The Secret Archives by Vincent Meylan covers some of Mrs. Greville's many commissions from the Parisian jeweler.

The Greville Festoon Necklace

The Greville Festoon Necklace
(In the center, one of The Queen Mother's Ruby and Diamond Floral Clips)

The Greville Festoon Necklace is one of the most impressive pieces from the Greville bequest, the collection of jewelry left to Queen Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother) in 1942 by the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville. The Cartier design has five rows of diamonds set in platinum, each row containing plaques of diamonds centered by large brilliants and separated by groups of two brilliants.

Queen Elizabeth in 1950, wearing all five strands for a Dutch state visit  
(she also wears the Greville Tiara in its previous design)

The necklace is really two pieces that can be worn separately or as one. The longer necklace has two strands and was made first; the shorter necklace has three strands and came later. Hugh Roberts notes in The Queen's Diamonds that the first version of the necklace with two strands had a slightly different design and was made for Mrs. Greville in 1929 using her own stones. Cartier later altered their initial creation to its current design and added the shorter necklace of three strands to sit inside, again using stones already in the Greville collection.

View image | gettyimages.com

The Queen Mother wearing the three strand necklace on her 100th birthday

All five strands worn together make a staggeringly opulent impression. Whether acknowledging that over the top effect or simply bowing to personal preference and the practical difficulties of using such a large piece, Queen Elizabeth did not often wear all five strands, usually saving it for special occasions. She did wear the three strand version alone, especially in her later years. She used the necklace until she passed away in 2002, at which time it passed to The Queen.

View image | gettyimages.com

The Duchess of Cornwall wearing the necklace for the first time, 2007

Along with a large portion of her late mother's collection, The Queen has loaned the Greville Festoon Necklace to The Duchess of Cornwall. She debuted it with all five strands blazing at The Queen's banquet for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2007. She has worn it only three times in public, on all occasions wearing all five strands. On two of those occasions, she paired it with the Greville Tiara. The Greville Tiara (from the same bequest, clearly) is a perfect match for this necklace, and I am hoping that we will see The Duchess begin to use the three strand version of the Festoon Necklace with it in the future.

Appearances (before 2002, on The Queen Mother; after 2007, on The Duchess of Cornwall):
25 October 2018: The Prince of Wales' 70th Birthday Concert
18 June 2015: The Duke of Wellington's Waterloo Banquet
2007: CHOGM Dinner
1960: State Visit from France   

Photos: Menkes/Royal Household, British Pathé video, via Getty Images

The Greville Ivy Leaf Brooches

The Greville Ivy Leaf Brooches

Princess Elizabeth celebrated her 21st birthday in the midst of her 1947 tour of Africa with her parents and sister. It was a prosperous birthday for her jewel collection, with presents including the Flame Lily Brooch from Rhodesia and her "best diamonds" from South Africa (and a prosperous year for the collection overall, as she would add her many wedding presents to the vault later on!). Her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, contributed to the birthday jewel haul with this set of diamond clips in the form of leaves of ivy. Each leaf includes a central brilliant diamond and pavé-set leaves in platinum.

View image | gettyimages.com

Like several of the gifts she received from her parents in her early years, these brooches came from Queen Elizabeth's existing jewel collection. The Queen's Diamonds by Hugh Roberts revealed that they were part of the large Greville bequest, the collection of jewels belonging to the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville which were bequeathed to the future Queen Mother in 1942. The ivy leaf brooches were made by Cartier, the first before 1930 and the second in 1937.

View image | gettyimages.com

The Queen could occasionally be seen in those early years having a bit of fun with these brooches, perching one on her hat (as seen above, with President Truman) or placing them on opposite sides of her neckline. Today, you'd be most likely to see them both on one side in traditional brooch position, though sadly they have become a rather rare sight. They are quite elegant little jewels, and I would love to see them enter the regular brooch rotation again!

Appearances:
11 October 2016: Royal Academy of Arts Reception 

Photos: Royal Collection/Queen Elizabeth II/Field, and via Getty Images

The Greville Peardrop Earrings

The Greville Peardrop Earrings

These diamond earrings date from 1938 and include large pear-shaped diamonds (20.66 and 20.26 carats), each suspended from one emerald cut and one pentagonal diamond. Set in platinum, they came from Cartier and were part of the large jewelry collection of Mrs. Greville, the society hostess that bequeathed her gems to Queen Elizabeth on her death in 1942.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

They were among the pieces in the bequest that were destined to become favorites of Queen Elizabeth's, both during her husband's reign and during her tenure as the Queen Mother. She wore them in the evening, often pairing them with the Greville Tiara, and she even wore them during certain special day events. On her death in 2002, they passed to the Queen.

The Queen

They haven't been worn often in public since 2002, but they aren't the only such diamond earrings in the Queen's collection. The Queen still seems to prefer the Coronation Earrings when an earring like this is called for.

Appearances (all prior to 2002 on Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother):
2011: State Visit from Turkey, State Banquet
1986: Wedding of The Duke and Duchess of York
1963: Wedding of Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy 
1960: Wedding of Princess Margaret and The Earl of Snowdon
1960: State Visit from France  

Photos: Royal Collection/Daily Mail/PA

The Greville Tiara

The Greville Tiara

The Greville Tiara, also often known as the Boucheron Honeycomb Tiara, was part of the Greville bequest to Queen Elizabeth, the future Queen Mother. The top of the tiara was altered by the Queen Mum, who counted this among the two tiaras she wore in her later years. It passed to the Queen in 2002. She never wore it, but loaned it to the Duchess of Cornwall following her 2005 wedding to the Prince of Wales. It has become the Duchess' most-worn tiara.

Read more at Order of Splendor.

Appearances (all prior to 2002 on Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, all after 2005 on The Duchess of Cornwall):
11 December 2019: Diplomatic Reception
14 October 2019: State Opening of Parliament
23 October 2018: State Visit from The Netherlands, State Banquet 
5 December 2017: Diplomatic Reception
12 July 2017: State Visit from Spain, State Banquet 
8 December 2016: Diplomatic Reception
1 November 2016: State Visit from Colombia, State Banquet
18 May 2016: State Opening of Parliament
27 November 2015: Visit to Malta, Day 2, CHOGM Dinner
18 June 2015: The Duke of Wellington's Waterloo Banquet
27 May 2015: State Opening of Parliament 
3 March 2015: State Visit from Mexico, State Banquet 
4 June 2014: State Opening of Parliament
8 April 2014: State Visit from Ireland
15 November 2013: CHOGM Dinner (plus previous years)
8 May 2013: State Opening of Parliament
29 April 2013: Dutch Pre-Inauguration Dinner (at Order of Splendor)
27 November 2012: State Visit from Kuwait (at Order of Splendor)
24 May 2011: State Visit from the United States (at Order of Splendor)
2010: State Visit from Qatar  
2010: State Visit from South Africa
2009: State Visit from India
2008: State Visit from France
2007: CHOGM Dinner
1998: State Visit from Japan
1991: Balmoral Ghillies Ball
1986: State Visit from Spain 
1982: State Visit from the Netherlands
1972: State Visit from the Netherlands
1960: State Visit from France   
1958: State Visit from Germany

Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau Necklace

The Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau Necklace

This necklace was one of The Queen’s wedding gifts from her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth; the palace has referred to it as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Bandeau Necklace. It was part of the Greville bequest, the collection of jewelry left to Queen Elizabeth by the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville when she died. Mrs. Greville purchased the necklace from Boucheron in 1907.

The necklace on display with the rest of the wedding gifts, and a detail of the center

The intricate piece is set in silver and gold and features single rubies between diamond flowers. It’s an interesting bandeau format, a deep v-shape culminating in a diamond pendant. The Queen did shorten it, as she tends to do with necklaces, by removing the two smaller floral pieces (these are the pieces you see in the photograph at the beginning of the entry - to my knowledge, they have not been converted to earrings).

The Queen wore the necklace more frequently in her younger years, but as her collection widened, her use of this one decreased. It is a statement necklace to be sure, and even shortened it conflicts with her higher necklines. After the 1980s, the bandeau necklace rested unworn in her vault.

The Duchess of Cambridge debuts the necklace

It rested in the vault until 2017, when The Queen loaned it to The Duchess of Cambridge for the Spanish state banquet. In 2018, it made a surprise reappearance on The Queen herself, sparkling in use once again.

Appearances:
19 April 2018: CHOGM Dinner 
12 July 2017: State Visit from Spain, State Banquet (on The Duchess of Cambridge)
1983: State Visit to Sweden
1982: State Visit from the Netherlands
Various Years: State Opening of Parliament 

Photos: Royal Collection/Leslie Field/Life/Getty Images

The Greville Chandelier Earrings

The Greville Chandelier Earrings

Mrs. Ronald Greville left her extensive jewel collection to Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) in 1942. Some have said King George VI was a bit uneasy about his wife collecting such a stash in such a way, but apparently he got over it, because the Greville collection provided jewels which still sparkle on the ladies of the royal family today.

Two items from the Greville jewels were gifted to Princess Elizabeth for her wedding in 1947: these chandelier earrings, and a large floral ruby and diamond necklace. The Greville Chandelier Earrings are made of platinum-set diamonds in a great variety of cuts (emerald, pear, square, half moon, trapeze, baguette, and more). Made by Cartier, they started out in a simpler form and evolved to what we see today by 1929.

The Queen used these often in her early years; after the wedding, they were her main showstopper earrings for formal events. They are not worn as often these days, but it's always a pleasant surprise when they are – they’re really quite pleasant and cohesive for a concept that seems a bit gimmicky at first (combining all the cuts of diamonds could have gone wrong in so many ways!). And the swing of the long earrings adds a tremendous amount of sparkle power.

Appearances:
2010: Visit to Canada 
1992: State Visit to Germany 
1986: State Visit from Spain
1983: State Visit to Sweden  
1978: State Visit to Germany
1967: Visit to Malta  
1958: State Visit from Germany
1958: State Visit to the Netherlands 

Photos: Leslie Field/Royal Collection/Getty Images

The Greville Scroll Brooch

The Greville Scroll Brooch

This petite trinket is a scroll of diamonds centered around three pearls and set in platinum. One of the interesting things learned from Hugh Roberts' book The Queen's Diamonds was just how extensive the Greville bequest was (these are the jewels of Mrs. Ronald Greville, left to the Queen Mother in 1942) - and this brooch was a part of it. Mrs. Greville had it made by Cartier using some of her own stones in 1929.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother

The third pearl is actually a drop pearl, but it seems to be worn with the drop on top mostly. The brooch passed to the Queen after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, and the Queen has worn it a few times since.

Personally, I think the Queen Mum had it right when she tried this out on her hat - it's a little small, compared to some of the other brooches in use, and so it makes for a nice secondary brooch, perhaps something to use to fasten the back of a sash in the evening.

Appearances:
24 July 2017: Church at Balmoral
17 March 2016: London Zoo Lion Exhibit Opening
26 June 2014: Audiences at Buckingham Palace
6 June 2013: Duke of Edinburgh's Order of New Zealand Investiture
21 March 2013: Audiences at Buckingham Palace
14 November 2012: Audiences at Buckingham Palace
2011: Visit to Australia 

Photos: Getty Images/Corbis