Jewels of Elizabeth II
owned a historic collection of jewels – some as monarch and others as a private individual. They are separate from the gems and jewels of the Royal Collection, and from the coronation and state regalia that make up the Crown Jewels.
The origin of a distinct royal jewel collection is vague, though it is believed the jewels have their origin somewhere in the 16th century. Many of the pieces are from overseas and were brought to the United Kingdom as a result of civil war, coups and revolutions, or acquired as gifts to the monarch. Most of the jewellery dates from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Crown Jewels are worn only at coronations and the annual State Opening of Parliament. At other formal occasions, such as banquets, Elizabeth II wore the jewellery in her collection. She owned more than 300 items of jewellery, including 98 brooches, 46 necklaces, 37 bracelets, 34 pairs of earrings, 20 tiaras, 15 rings, 14 watches and 5 pendants, the most notable of which are detailed in this article.
History
General history
Unlike the Crown Jewels—which mainly date from the accession of Charles II—the jewels are not official regalia or insignia. Much of the collection was designed for queens regnant and queens consort, though some kings have added to the collection. Most of the jewellery was purchased from other European heads of state and members of the aristocracy, or handed down by older generations of the royal family, often as birthday and wedding presents. In recent years, Elizabeth had worn them in her capacity as Queen of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and can be seen wearing jewels from her collection in official portraits made specially for these realms.House of Hanover dispute
In 1714, with the accession of George I, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Hanover both came to be ruled in personal union by the House of Hanover. Early Hanoverian monarchs were careful to keep the heirlooms of the two realms separate. George III gave half the British heirlooms to his bride, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, as a wedding present. In her will, Charlotte left the jewels to the 'House of Hanover'. The Kingdom of Hanover followed the Salic Law, whereby the line of succession went through male heirs.Thus, when Queen Victoria acceded to the throne of the United Kingdom, her uncle Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale became King of Hanover. King Ernest demanded a portion of the jewellery, not only as the monarch of Hanover but also as the son of Queen Charlotte. Victoria flatly declined to hand over any of the jewels, claiming they had been bought with British money. Ernest's son, George V of Hanover, continued to press the claim. Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, suggested that she make a financial settlement with the Hanoverian monarch to keep the jewels, but Parliament informed Queen Victoria they would neither purchase the jewels nor loan funds for the purpose.
A parliamentary commission was set up to investigate the matter and in 1857 they found in favour of the House of Hanover. On 28 January 1858, seven years after Ernest's death, the jewels were handed to the Hanoverian Ambassador, Count Adolf von Kielmansegg. Victoria did manage to keep one of her favourite pieces of jewellery: a fine rope of pearls.
Ownership and value
Some pieces of jewellery made before the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 are regarded as heirlooms owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and pass from one monarch to the next in perpetuity. Objects made later, including official gifts, can also be added to that part of the Royal Collection at the sole discretion of a monarch. It is not possible to say how much the collection is worth because the jewels have a rich and unique history, and they are unlikely to be sold on the open market.In the early 20th century, five other lists of jewellery, which have also never been published, supplemented those left to the Crown by Queen Victoria:
- Jewels left to the Crown by Queen Victoria
- Jewels left by Her Majesty to His Majesty the King
- Jewels left to King Edward VII by Queen Victoria, hereinafter to be considered as belonging to the Crown and to be worn by all future queens in right of it
- Jewels the property of King George V
- Jewels given to the Crown by Queen Mary
- Jewels given to the Crown by King George V
Tiaras
Delhi Durbar Tiara
The Delhi Durbar Tiara was made by Garrard & Co. for Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, to wear at the Delhi Durbar in 1911. As the Crown Jewels never leave the country, George V had the Imperial Crown of India made to wear at the Durbar, and Queen Mary wore the tiara. It was part of a set of jewellery made for Queen Mary to use at the event which included a necklace, stomacher, brooch and earrings. Made of gold and platinum, the tiara is 8 cm tall and has the form of a tall circlet of lyres and S-scrolls linked by festoons of diamonds. It was originally set with 10 of the Cambridge emeralds, acquired by Queen Mary in 1910 and first owned by her grandmother, the Duchess of Cambridge. In 1912, the tiara was altered to take one or both of the Cullinan III and IV diamonds; the pear-shaped diamond was held at the top, and the cushion-shaped stone hung in the oval aperture underneath. Mary lent the tiara to Queen Elizabeth for the 1947 royal tour of South Africa, and it remained with her until she died in 2002, when it passed to Elizabeth II. In 2005, Elizabeth II lent the tiara to her daughter-in-law the Duchess of Cornwall.Queen Mary Fringe Tiara
This tiara, which can also be worn as a necklace, was made for Queen Mary in 1919. It has 47 tapering bars, set with brilliant-cut and rose-cut diamonds, alternated with smaller spikes with lozenge-set diamonds, involving gold and silver settings. It was designed to be a "Russian" pattern, based on kokoshoniks, and was made by Garrard & Co. It is not, as has sometimes been claimed, made with diamonds that once belonged to George III, but reuses diamonds taken from a necklace/tiara purchased by Queen Victoria from Collingwood & Co. as a wedding present for Princess Mary in 1893. In August 1936, Mary gave the tiara to her daughter-in-law Queen Elizabeth. When Queen Elizabeth, consort of King George VI, first wore the tiara, Sir Henry Channon called it "an ugly spiked tiara". Later, she lent the piece to her daughter, Princess Elizabeth, as "something borrowed" for her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947. As Princess Elizabeth was getting dressed at Buckingham Palace before leaving for Westminster Abbey, the tiara snapped. Luckily, a Garrard jeweller was standing by in case of any emergency, and was rushed to his work room by a police escort. Queen Elizabeth reassured her daughter that it would be fixed in time, and it was. The Queen Mother lent it to her granddaughter, Princess Anne, for her wedding to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973. It was later lent to Princess Beatrice for her wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in 2020.It was exhibited with a number of other royal tiaras in 2001.
Queen Adelaide's Fringe Necklace
The Queen Adelaide's Fringe Necklace is a circlet incorporating brilliant diamonds that were formerly owned by George III. Originally commissioned in 1830 and made by Rundell, Bridge & Co, the necklace has been worn by many queens consort. Originally, it could be worn as a collar or necklace. Queen Victoria modified it so it could be mounted on a wire to form the tiara. Queen Victoria wore it as a tiara during a visit to the Royal Opera in 1839. In Franz Xaver Winterhalter's painting The First of May, completed in 1851, Victoria can be seen wearing it as she holds Prince Arthur, the future Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. In a veiled reference to the adoration of the Magi, the Duke of Wellington is seen presenting the young prince with a gift. It was classified as an "heirloom of the Crown" in Garrard's 1858 inventory of Queen Victoria's jewels.Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara
The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, sometimes the Diamond and Pearl Tiara, was bought, along with a diamond rivière, by Queen Mary from Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia, mother of the Duchess of Kent, in 1921 for a price of £28,000. The grand duchess, known after her marriage as Princess Nicholas of Greece, inherited it from her mother, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, who received it as a wedding gift from her husband in 1874. It originally had 15 large drop pearls, and was made by the jeweller Carl Edvard Bolin at a cost of 48,200 rubles.During the Russian Revolution in 1917, the tiara was hidden with other jewels somewhere in Vladimir Palace in Petrograd, and later saved from Soviet Russia by Albert Stopford, a British art dealer and secret agent. In the years to follow, Princess Nicholas sold pieces of jewellery from her collection to support her exiled family and various charities.
Queen Mary had the tiara altered to accommodate 15 of the Cambridge cabochon emeralds. The original drop pearls can easily be replaced as an alternative to the emeralds. Elizabeth II inherited the tiara directly from her grandmother in 1953. It is almost exclusively worn together with the Cambridge and Delhi Durbar parures, also containing large emeralds. Elizabeth wore the tiara in her official portrait as Queen of Canada as none of the Commonwealth realms besides the United Kingdom have their own crown jewels.