Queen Maxima wears her wedding tiara (Photo: Sion Touhig/Getty Images) |
Prince of Wales Feathers for Camilla
Camilla attends a garden party at Buckingham Palace (Photo: Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool/Getty Images) |
At Thursday’s garden party at Buckingham Palace, the Duchess of Cornwall wore a small brooch with a big symbolic impact.
Photo: JONATHAN BRADY/AFP/Getty Images |
The brooch features diamond Prince of Wales feathers gathered by a single gray pearl, which is ringed with diamonds. The pearl cluster stands in place of the usual gold coronet that gathers the three ostrich feathers on the traditional heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales.
Photo: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images |
Camilla has had the brooch since the ’90s, but her most significant appearance in the jewel was surely at her civil wedding ceremony in 2005 — the day she became Princess of Wales in all but name.
Kate’s Jewelry Box: The Sapphire and Diamond Fringe Earrings
Kate wears the earrings at the Victoria and Albert Museum (Photo: Chris Jackson – WPA Pool /Getty Images) |
Among the heirloom royal jewels that the Duchess of Cambridge has worn, the sapphire and diamond fringe earrings that belonged to the late Queen Mother are among my absolute favorites. The earrings somehow manage to be classic and fun all at the same time.
Photo: Chris Jackson – WPA Pool /Getty Images |
The earrings feature a diamond stud with a dangle made of a large sapphire surrounded by diamonds; a delicate, almost geometric diamond and sapphire fringe is suspended from that sapphire and diamond cluster. Kate has only worn them once so far in public: for a 100 Women in Hedge Funds gala dinner held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in October 2015. Unfortunately, Kate wore them with her hair down, which means that our views of the earrings were slightly obscured. (In many photographs from the event, you can’t see them at all.)
You can see the design of the earrings a little better in the composite photo above, which shows the Queen Mother wearing them. (She’s paired them with one of my favorite brooches: the large diamond, sapphire, and gold filagree brooch from the Russian imperial collection.)
Photo: Chris Jackson – WPA Pool /Getty Images |
I don’t think we know much about the earrings’ provenance beyond their association with the Queen Mother, but to me, they look like 20th century pieces. Here’s hoping we see Kate bring these out again — perhaps with her hair pulled back, so we get a clearer look at the jewels?