The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: July 15-21

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July 15-21, 2016
Earrings and brooches stole the show this week. Don’t forget to vote for your favorites in our weekly poll!
Photo: Luca V. Teuchmann/Getty Images
10. For the annual summer portrait session at Grasten, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark wore a variety of jewels, including pearl drop earrings and a love bracelet by Cartier. (See more photos of her jewels from the portraits here.)

Photo: ANTHONY DEHEZ/AFP/Getty Images
9. Thursday was Belgium’s National Day, and as usual, Princess Astrid attended the Te Deum service in full military dress. She also snuck in a pair of glittering stud earrings with her uniform, though!
Photo: Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool/Getty Images
8. Charles and Camilla — the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall — made an extended visit to Cornwall and Devon this week. While visiting the set of the television show Doc Martin on Tuesday, Camilla wore pearls, including her single-stranded pearl necklace with the pave-set ball clasp.
Photo: Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool/Getty Images
7. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom wore her Pearl Trefoil Brooch while presenting the insignia of the Order of Merit at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
Photo: Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images
6. High fashion was in order for Queen Letizia of Spain’s appearance at the National Fashion Awards in Madrid on Thursday, and she met the challenge head-on with a pair of enormous statement earrings. (See close-ups of the earrings here!)
Photo: Luca Teuchmann/Getty Images
5. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark’s jewels at the Grasten portrait session included a pair of floral earrings and a sapphire and diamond anchor brooch. (See better images of all of her jewels over here.)
Photo: NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/AFP/Getty Images
4. Queen Mathilde of the Belgians wore a lovely pair of diamond earrings at the Te Deum service on National Day.
Photo: KRISTOF VAN ACCOM/AFP/Getty Images
3. For a concert by the Belgian National Orchestra on the eve of National Day, Princess Astrid wore a lovely pair of sparkling tassel earrings.
Photo: KRISTOF VAN ACCOM/AFP/Getty Images
2. And for the same concert, Queen Mathilde also wore diamond tassel earrings! (Think they called each other up and planned to match?) She paired them with a diamond bracelet and her sapphire and diamond ring.
Photo: Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool /Getty Images
1. My top spot of the week goes to the art deco brooch worn by Queen Elizabeth II for Wednesday’s audiences at Buckingham Palace. (See closer photos and read more about its history here!)

Another Outing for the Graving Dock Diamonds

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The Queen with the Hurleys at Buckingham Palace (Photo: Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool /Getty Images)

Queen Elizabeth II held a private audience at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday with David Hurley, the Governor of New South Wales, and his wife, Linda. For the audience, we had another outing of a brooch worn recently: the Graving Dock Diamonds Brooch.

Photo: Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool /Getty Images

Here’s a closer view of the brooch as worn on Tuesday by the Queen.

And here’s a clipping from a newspaper that shows a gift of five diamonds given to Princess Elizabeth in 1947 when she opened the new Graving Dock in East London. (Here’s more on the gift in an extensive thread at the Royal Jewels of the World Message Board.)

Photo: Arthur Edwards/WPA Pool/Getty Images

A close-up from a few weeks ago clearly shows the five diamonds set in a bar brooch. Curiously, although she received the diamonds more than half a century ago, the brooch doesn’t appear to have been worn in public until a few years ago.

Photo: Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool /Getty Images

I love the shape of this brooch — it’s a total classic. Many of the Queen’s brooches may prove challenging for future generations of Windsor women to wear, but pieces like this will be timeless components of any royal jewelry box.