State Visit from Ireland, Welcome Ceremony and State Banquet

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh welcomed the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, and his wife Sabina Higgins, at the beginning of his State Visit to the United Kingdom.

Video, above; click here for an article from The Telegraph or here for pictures from RTÉ. 
History all over the place here - this is the first state visit to the U.K. by an Irish head of state. And the Queen picked a fitting brooch to go with her Stewart Parvin outfit and Angela Kelly hat, something new (!) and with an Irish connection to boot. See the link below for more details.

Mappin & Webb Orchid Brooch

Queen Mary's Button Earrings

Three Strand Pearl Necklace

Gold Watch

Engagement and Wedding Rings 


The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, together with other members of the Royal Family, gave a State Banquet in honor of the President of Ireland at Windsor Castle.

Click here for photos from the Daily Mail. Also click here for another gallery for the whole day, and click here for a video from the BBC.
More gem excitement! It has been a long time since the Queen trotted out her emeralds for a banquet (there was a portrait a couple years ago, but nothing compares to these in action). I hoped we would see emeralds for the Emerald Isle when she traveled to Ireland in 2011, but at that time we got the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, so it's nice to see she was holding back for the return state visit. And we even have some extra sparkly interest here: there's a smaller brooch on the front, and her bracelet appears to be one from Queen Mary with a large square or rectangular emerald and a diamond band (see the photos from Franck and Beth at the RJWMB here).

Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara with Emeralds
Delhi Durbar Earrings
Delhi Durbar Necklace
Scroll Cambridge Emerald Brooch
Emerald and Diamond Celtic Knot Brooch
Order of the Garter Star, Riband, and Lesser George
Diamond Bar Brooch (on her back)
Emerald and Diamond Bracelet from Queen Mary
Diamond Evening Watch

More family members were in attendance as well (though as always, it is hard to see), including the Duchess of Cornwall in the Greville Tiara. The Princess Royal wore her Aquamarine Pineflower Tiara, the Duchess of Gloucester possibly wore the Gloucester Honeysuckle Tiara, and Princess Michael of Kent wore the Kent Festoon Tiara.

Photos:RTÉ/PA

The Delhi Durbar Stomacher and Scroll Cambridge Emerald Brooch

The Delhi Durbar Stomacher (left) and Scroll Cambridge Emerald Brooch (right)

Queen Mary loved a good stomacher, and the parure she created for the Delhi Durbar in 1911 wouldn't have been complete without one. There are seven of the gold-set cabochon Cambridge emeralds here and plenty of diamonds - including some of the chips from the famous Cullinan diamond. Two Cullinan brooches are used in the stomacher (and, obviously, can still be used on their own as well): the Cullinan V heart brooch, in the center of the top portion, and the Cullinan VIII emerald cut brooch. The Cullinan VIII is normally used with Cullinan VI suspended as a pendant, but in the Delhi Durbar stomacher it takes on the end emerald pendant instead.

Queen Mary with the stomacher

True to her pile-it-on tendencies, Mary sometimes wore other brooches as extensions of the stomacher. In her Delhi Durbar portrait (above, left), she pinned the Delhi Carved Emerald Brooch as a top piece; she also used a second Cambridge emerald brooch (the next topic in our series) as an addition to the bottom from time to time. Neither were integral to the design of the stomacher.

With the Scroll Cambridge Emerald Brooch alone (in the center of her bodice)

In addition to the Cullinan brooches stuck in the stomacher, the piece includes a removable emerald brooch.  The Scroll Cambridge Emerald Brooch (as I like to call it) is created by combining the central cushion-shaped emerald in its scrolled diamond setting with the bottom emerald pendant.

Along with the rest of the emeralds, the stomacher and brooches passed to the Queen in 1953. She doesn't use stomachers much, but she uses the Scroll brooch occasionally (and, of course, the separate Cullinan brooches). The Scroll brooch has been used for day occasions but it's also used in the evening, to pin ribands in place when using the other emeralds in the collection (both those in the same parure, and those in others - on the right above, the Queen uses other emerald jewels including pieces from the Emerald Tassel Parure).

Click here to read more about the Cambridge emeralds and the Delhi Durbar Parure.

Appearances:
8 April 2014: State Visit from Ireland 
1984: Royal Maundy Service 
1980: Christmas Broadcast    
1972: State Visit from the Netherlands

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