The Jordan Turquoise Demi-Parure

The Queen has been given plenty of interesting jewelry during her reign. This particular interesting set came from King Hussein of Jordan, who visited the United Kingdom on a state visit in 1966 and brought a gift of a modern demi-parure with a necklace and matching earrings made of turquoise, sapphires, and diamonds. The necklace has a cluster design of all three stones above a row of turquoise pendants, and the earrings echo that design with clusters of turquoise, sapphire, and diamond above turquoise pendants.

The Jordan Turquoise Demi-Parure

The mixing of stones is what makes this set unique. Most of the royal turquoise jewelry we see limits the stones to only turquoise and diamonds, such as the Teck Turquoise Parure owned by the Gloucesters or Princess Margaret's Persian Turquoise Parure, to name just two British examples. The amethyst and turquoise Cartier bib necklace made for the late Duchess of Windsor is the most prominent royal example of turquoise mixed with other colored stones that comes to mind. (In fact, depending on the picture, the stones in this Jordan set can look purple in color. Leslie Field's The Queen's Jewels identifies them as sapphire.)

View image | gettyimages.com

The Queen doesn't wear turquoise very often in any format (which was why her debut of the Turquoise and Diamond Brooch in 2014 came as such a surprise), and she has certainly used these pieces sparingly. They weren't publicly seen until she visited King Hussein on a state visit to Jordan in 1984, and we've only seen them a couple times since.

Appearances:
1992: State Visit to Germany

Photos: via Getty Images/Scanpix