Jewellery-British Royal Family.

[DaisyDooley]

This thread is for pictures and question on the JEWELLERY Of the British Royal Family, Past and Current pieces. There may be posts about other Family’s Royal Jewels too.
It is only for discussing Jewels.
No discussions of current members of the RF, no de railing by talking about tax or ownership of certain pieces.
Just lovely pretty Jewels.

Amethyst and turquoise was evidently a combination that at least one of the Windsors loved! Not so keen myself, but also never likely to be in a situation where someone is showering me with jewels, so it's not exactly a big problem.

I loved that Catherine wore the Oriental Circlet Tiara for the German State Visit but her hairstyle was a mess. That tiara needs a proper up-do in my opinion to hold it in place.

The flamingo brooch is my dream piece

What a fascinating and interesting thread, thank you @DaisyDooley I am thoroughly enjoying seeing the fabulous jewels and learning about them.

Thought I would do a post on the most beautiful, the biggest, the most fabulous diamond in the world.
Cullinan I - IX.

I’ll give a bit of background
The Cullinan diamond was found in South Africa during the reign of Edward VII.
In its rough state it weighed 1.5 lbs which was 3,706 carats.
It was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, chairman of the company who had discovered the mine in 1902.
Interestingly it wasn’t ‘mined’. Captain Frederick Welles, superintendent of the mine was making his daily inspection when he saw a ‘flash’. He went to examine what it was -he initially thought it was a piece of glass planted as a joke. He dug it out of the ground using his pocket knife.
The Transvaal government bought the stone and after a vote decided to give it to King Edward Vll. Interestingly the English born members of the parliament voted against this while the Boers voted in favour.
There was a great deal of interest around this -the biggest diamond ever found.
There was a huge amount of interest in how it would get to England to be presented to the King and worries about its safety. Consequently it’s transported with its own police guard to the ship which had been given the job of sending it to the UK. It was put in the Captains safe and had its own police guard all the way to England.
Well- that’s what people thought. A fake was put in the safe. The original was put in the parcel post and quietly sent to England where it arrived safEly. Mail must hve been a much better service then!
Anyway, itwas presented to the King and sent to Asschers in Amsterdam to cut it. The stone was studied for three months until the 10th Feb 1908 at 2.45pm Joseph Asscher put his steel cleaving blade at the agreed point and hit with his hammer. The blade snapped. Mr Asscher calmly inserted a new blade & struck again. This time the stone split in two -one piece weighing 1977.5 carats, the other 1040cts.
Atbthe end of cutting & polishing there were 9 major stones, 96 small brilliants & 10 carats of unpolished ‘ends’. The total weight of cut diamonds came to 1,063 cts which meant a loss of 65% in cutting.
The King ws presented with the largest two stones.
The rest belonged to Asschers for cutting it.
The king privately purchased VI for his wife.
The South African government didn’t want the other stones bought by private individuals so purchased them all and presented them to Queen Mary.

Edit - it’s been claimed that it’s an urban myth that Joseph Asscher fainted after cleaving the stone. His family hve said this didn’t happen.

So where are they now?
Cullinan l - 530.2 ct. At the top of the Sovereigns Septre
Cullinan ll - 317.4ct. At the front of the imperial state crown
Cullinan lll - 94.4. Part of a brooch/pendant
Cullinan lV - 63.6ct Part of a brooch/pendant
Cullinan V 18.8ct. Used in the heart shaped brooch
Cullinan Vl 11.5ct Used with Vlll in brooch
Cullinan Vll 8.8ct Used in Delhi Durbar necklace
Cullinan Vlll 6.8ct. As Vl
Cullinan IX 4.39ct. Used in a ring.

Anyway, here’s my favourite picture of l, ll, lll and lV.
It’s the only picture of them all together , cut, polished and mounted
And, only the divine Queen Mary would have the balls to wear them like this.
Yes, at the front of her dress is a brooch of Cullinan l&ll. Nearly 850cts.
Which rather makes a mockery of Princess Margaret saying to Elizabeth Taylor that the 40ct Krupp diamond was ‘vulgar’.
Cullinan lll and lV are being used as a necklace pendant.

Cullinan lll and lV in its current brooch setting

Cullinan V. This was used in Camilla’s coronation crown in place of the Koh-in-noor diamond,

Cullinan VI and Vlll

Cullinan Vll

Cullinan lX

I love the Delhi Durbar necklace. It's so modern somehow - possibly the assymetry?

And the "Granny's Chips" nickname for the III and IV brooch always amuses me.

@DaisyDooley do you have the Hugh Roberts book The Queen's Diamonds? I keep looking longingly at it online but copies are SO expensive! I wish they'd reprint it.

Did it not strike any of those involved that they could sell off the diamonds in the open market to help the no doubt poor miners and their families and others living in abject poverty in South Africa at the time.
Like instead of giving it to an already rich and overly bejewelled royal family 🥲

Yes I do.
I have all the books I’m afraid!
My last purchase was Tiaras By Geoffrey C Munn.
I got The Jewels Of the Romanovs as a present from my ladies group for making the cakes all year.
The catalogues I hve got as Christmas presents bought from eBay apart from the Elizabeth Taylor ones which my husband ordered for me when they were released as my Christmas box that year. They were £200 new.
I havent got any friends who love jewellery like I do so I have no friends to share them with. My little dream is to hve food & drinks with my books and like minded ladies!

No it didn’t.
Thanks for your contribution but I’m really not looking for a derailment.
If you want to discuss this then start your own thread.

Thanks, @DaisyDooley for all the information about the Cullinan, I'd no idea of the history, or that there were so many pieces created.

And, only the divine Queen Mary would have the balls to wear them like this.

Wow! You are right only Queen Mary could have pulled that off.

Thanks for the information and the pictures, incredible.

Remember, @PlacidPenelope, Queen Mary was a woman who wore a tiara to dinner every night. Kudos.

I love the Palmette tiara worn by Princess Sofia of Sweden for its versality. The colours can be altered as the top stones can be changed to coordinate with different outfits. So far she has worn it as diamonds without top stones and added pearls, emeralds, citrines, blue topaz and turquoise.

Thank you @DaisyDooley so interesting

Thank you for this fascinating and informative thread @DaisyDooley , I just love a bit of bling and the history too!

@DaisyDooley I do like the matching charm necklace - the other one I am not so fond of. Thank you - I didn't know about that particular necklace , I've never seen her in a photograph with it on. I saw the bracelet in her wedding photograph amongst others.
Say what you like about the DoW but she probably kept Cartier in good business for a while. 😄

I know that's so funny. It reminds me in a way of the scene in Downton Abbey when Robert comes down in a dinner jacket rather than white tie. The Dowager Countess makes some comment about him being in his pyjamas and Robert said , I thought this would do for when Cora and I were dining alone 😂

How unlike the home life of our own dear Basilisk. 😊

I remember that scene! So funny!

I’m very much enjoying this thread, thank you @DaisyDooley for the info and pics.

Just before the late Queen died I was in London with friends and we did the tour of the state rooms at Buckingham Palace. There was a small display of the Queen’s jewels and tiaras and I remember being astounded that they were the real deal on display, rather than paste mock-ups. They were all recognisable pieces along with pictures of her wearing them and they twinkled brilliantly. I think she passed away a couple of days later.

It's interesting how unsentimental the rf was about jewellery 60-80 years ago - Queen Mary wanted something new? She'd just take the stones out/melt down something she disliked to produce a new piece. It's a shame that the King or Queen doesn't add a few pieces each decade.

Does the royal collection have anymore bandeau tiaras? I think this style would really suit Catherine with her beautiful hair - but the 2 that I have seen were worn recently at Meghan and Eugenie's weddings so she probably would not want to wear them in the near future.