The Diamond Cockade Brooch

The Diamond Cockade Brooch

The Diamond Cockade Brooch has been worn to three coronations and used in its present form by four queens. This is a brooch with a rich history – and at this time, we don’t even know its whole story. It is said to have belonged to Queen Victoria, but it was Queen Alexandra that had it altered to the form we’re familiar with today. It’s a large clasp for a cloak, which is used as a stomacher or very large brooch, all made in diamonds. It comes in three pieces, a central star with eight points and large diamond elements between each, and two side pieces with an intricate knotted design. Before Alexandra, the piece was in five sections and was originally used as a cockade – normally a hat ornament, possibly part of a military uniform. The exact provenance and age is not currently known.

Queen Alexandra using the full clasp at her coronation (with close up of her heavily jeweled bodice) and using only the center section

Queen Alexandra wore the full three pieces to her coronation alongside her husband, Edward VII, in 1902 underneath her swags of pearls. It was also used at the coronation of George V in 1911 by Queen Mary, who wore it with the two side pieces at an angle. Mary was also known to use the side pieces with different brooches in the center.

Queen Mary (with the full clasp, and using the two side sections around other pieces), Queen Elizabeth (using the center section on her bodice), and Queen Elizabeth II (using the center section as a shoulder brooch)

Queen Elizabeth wore just the center section to her 1937 coronation with her husband, George VI – and it’s entirely possible it wasn’t seen in public again until Queen Elizabeth II wore it in 2008, to a state banquet for the President of France. (That 71-year delay makes it seem likely it stayed with the Queen Mother after 1952, not being unearthed until the Queen inherited her jewelry in 2002 and began to debut different pieces.) We haven’t seen the side pieces since Queen Mary’s time, and I suppose they suffer the same fate as most stomachers, becoming harder to wear as fashions change. Regardless of the difficulties of wearing it, it is a staggering piece, and it would be such a treat to see the whole thing once again some day.

Appearances (of the Center Section only, unless otherwise noted):
5 November 2013: State Visit from South Korea, State Banquet 
2008: State Visit from France, State Banquet

Photos: Lord Twining/Royal Collection/Getty Images

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

Queen Mary's Stomacher

Queen Mary's Stomacher

This stomacher (a piece of jewelry designed to be worn on the front of the bodice) is composed of three brooches of graduated size. Made of diamonds set in gold and white gold, each brooch includes three pear-shaped pendants and two brilliant pendants; the smallest brooch includes an extra pendant as an elaborate end to the piece. This was made in 1920 for Queen Mary using two pieces already in her collection: the Kapurthala Stomacher, given to her by the Maharajah of Karpurthala, and a diamond crescent from the town of Swansea, both of which she received as wedding presents in 1893.

Queen Mary wearing the Karputhala stomacher

Redesigning existing pieces was something Queen Mary did often, and this is an example of how good she was this sort of repurposing; she took a rather dense and spiky piece and turned it into a light, airy, and intricate stomacher. She gave the redesigned jewel to her granddaughter Princess Elizabeth as a wedding gift in 1947.

Wearing the full stomacher (left) and just the bottom brooch (center and right)

Unfortunately, by the time she handed this down, the fashions that allowed Mary to wear stomachers with such panache had long gone out of style. Perhaps because of the difficulty of the stomacher design and size, these pieces are rarely used in public. The individual brooches are far larger than the Queen's preferred brooch size; she has worn the smallest brooch on its own, though when placed on the shoulder as she usually uses her brooches, the pendant hangs at an awkward angle. We didn't see her use the full stomacher as intended in public until 2002, when she wore it to a dinner celebrating her Golden Jubilee with other monarchs in attendance.

Photos:Royal Collection/Leslie Field/Corbis