When the Queen and Angela Kelly sit down to plan her jewels for a state banquet, they’re spoiled for choice when it comes to diamond necklaces. But although the Queen has numerous necklaces suitable for a grand state dinner, in recent years she’s often reached for one in particular: her modern diamond fringe necklace.

To my knowledge, nothing has ever been released about the provenance of this necklace, but the Queen began wearing it about a decade ago. She debuted it in public about a year after her Golden Jubilee, which has always made me wonder if it was a present connected to that important anniversary. Above, she wears the necklace at a state dinner at Buckingham Palace for President and Mrs. Bush of the USA in 2003. She recycled both the necklace and the dress two years later for a visit from the Italian president, as you can see in the photo below.

The design of the necklace is relatively simple: diamond fringes are suspended at regular intervals from a necklace made of clusters of diamonds. Unlike traditional fringe necklaces, this one does not have shorter, smaller fringes placed between the longer fringe pieces; instead, there are spaces between the individual fringes.

The Queen has paired the necklace with several tiaras from her collection, including the Vladimir Tiara, the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, and Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara.

The necklace was also one of the jewels that the Queen chose for one of the most important state banquets of her reign: the 2011 dinner in Ireland.

The piece has clearly become a favorite of the Queen, but I’ll admit that it’s not one of my favorites among her collection. What do you think of this modern piece?

One of the largest brooches in the Queen’s jewelry box is yet another legacy from her grandmother, Queen Mary: the Richmond Brooch.

The brooch, made by Hunt and Roskell, was given to Mary as a wedding present in 1893 by the people of Richmond. Mary’s family, the Tecks, had lived at White Lodge in Richmond Park for more than two decades, so although Mary’s father’s family was German, she really was something of a local girl in the English town. The brooch they offered to Mary was made of diamonds set with two pearls: a large round center pearl, plus a detachable pear-shaped pearl drop.

As a brief aside: for a number of years, the pearl pendant was separated from the brooch and used on Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara. When the upright pearls were eventually removed from that tiara, the pendant was returned to the Richmond Brooch.

Mary first wore the brooch privately during her honeymoon at Osborne House. It wasn’t exactly a private or casual getaway; George and Mary were staying with Queen Victoria, so there were plenty of opportunities for her to wear her new jewels.

Mary was also photographed in the Richmond Brooch in 1896. A year later, she wore the brooch (along with basically the rest of the contents of her jewelry box) at the famed Devonshire House Ball. You can spot the piece being used as a pendant on Mary’s pearl necklace in the portrait above.

The brooch was among the jewels that the Queen inherited from Mary in 1953. It’s a little tough to see, but she’s wearing it in the photo above, taken at the opening of parliament in New South Wales in 1954. On that occasion, she paired the brooch with the Lover’s Knot Tiara and Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Necklace.

Although she only wore it sparingly during her early reign, in recent years she has worn it fairly regularly, both with the pendant pearl drop and without. The brooch most recently appeared in public in 2014, when the Queen wore it at the Festival of Remembrance in November.