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.

I think the pearls would look fantastic on Camilla

Oddly I wasn't keen on the Greville Kokshnik tiara (Eugenie's wedding tiara) on Camilla. It seemed a bit lost in her huge fluffy hair - I think Camilla suits a big tiara much better.

Perhaps she should offer it to Catherine as I think it would look really good against her dark hair.

I love the Vladimir without the additional jewels.

I’m loving this thread. Such fascinating info. I have a question @DaisyDooley - how do the tiaras stay on heads? Some of them look very weighty.

Thanks so much for the explanation on cutting of diamonds- fascinating. Still seems a slight shame to split such a rock though!

Attached a photo of an emerald I saw exhibited at Chatsworth House. I couldn't believe the enormous size (nothing for scale but it was larger than my fist!).

That’s not the Vladimir.
It’s either a paste copy or AI.
Sorry. As soon as I saw it it just looked ‘wrong’.

Daisy do you know anything about the emerald necklace EIIR is wearing in the 2nd photo? When the photo first appeared, I recall, no one knew anything about it. And are the emerald drops the Cambridge emeralds?

Those earrings look like they would be incredibly heavy.

Yes they re which is why so many of them cannot be modified for clip-ons.
Have you ever seen earrings with a supportive ‘hoop’ that goes over the back of the ear? It’s when earrings are so heavy they will drag so much on the lobe it pulls on the piercing to make it more of a cut than a tiny hole?,
Ill look for some later and post a picture to show you what I mean.

Thank you for a fascinating thread @DaisyDooley , your knowledge is superb. I’m another jewellery addict, love watching auctions.

Interesting, I’ve often wondered about how they wear those heavy earrings without pulling on the ear lobes.

I love the Vladimir and like you would love to see it have a range of interchangeable droppers - sapphire, ruby etc. I had not thought about fire opal but that would look amazing as they move freely.

No I haven't but it sounds like a very good idea!

It does look as though some of the wearers ear lobes are being stretched!

Thank you @DaisyDooley for the thread - I love a bit of bling...

I had wondered about the Strathmore Rose - it is a bit more understated and pretty than many of the other tiaras so maybe both the QM and TLQ thought it not regal enough to wear themselves. It might have been offered to Princess Anne had she not had the Meander but, again, it is a bit pretty for her style. I think it suits Catherine and wonder if it might be a "starter" tiara for Charlotte in the fullness of time.

I don’t wish to add to a derail but does it also not strike you that these pieces of jewellery are more than the sum of the gems incorporated into them.

They are now historical artifacts made by some of the finest goldsmiths in the world representing the highest levels of craftsmanship.

Breaking them down to their component parts to sell, even for worthy causes would mean the destruction of the pieces of art that they indisputably are.

I doubt you’d suggest the destruction of other expensive historically, culturally and artistically significant artifacts for such a purpose.

What I wish is that our RF would do as the Danish RF do and have the jewels on display - not just the Crown Jewels, but the Heirlooms of the Crown and the other big event pieces.

There's an excellent website about the Danish RF jewellery: https://www.kongehuset.dk/en/royal-collections/jewellery/#the-crown-jewels

In fairness there is usually an exhibition at Buckingham Palace every year which more often than not has a range of pieces on display from the Kings Jewellry collection.
That surely should be enough -to have them rotated and to see the ‘big gun’ pieces. There is always a theme and they are beautifully displayed
The King -the current owner- is under no obligation to display them all and if he did no doubt there would be a myriad of nasty threads saying they should be sold because ‘starving children/reparations/ukraine war/etc’.

There are many of us -including Many Russians -who grieve for the destruction of many of the private jewels seized during the Revolution of 1917.
Many pieces were destroyed. Others were stolen, broken down & sold.
Others were sold by the Bolshevik government (mainly broken down into component parts so they couldn’t be identified) and sold at auction.
Some were kept.
These are now the pride of Russia and are on display in the Kremlin -along with clothes that belonged to the Imperial family.
How much would Russia now wish that they had the full collection of Faberge Eggs??

....nasty threads saying they should be sold

Who could buy them? They are literally priceless. Not just the value of the gems and precious metals, but the craftsmanship and the historical associations would make it impossible to put a price on them.

And if they were sold, just think of the unsavoury types whose hands they could fall into. Mohamed al Fayed, for example, would probably have loved to get his hands on something with a royal provenance, and there are no doubt plenty more like him around. Plus Russian oligarchs who managed not to have their assets frozen, and many others.

Much better where they are, where they'll be looked after, treated with respect, and seen being worn as they were intended to be worn, with dignity.

Well I never knew I was interested in the royal family's jewellery, but it turns out I am! Thank you for starting this thread and all the fascinating information.

Didn't some of Princess Margaret's jewellery get sold? Was it modern things or did she have any older items?
I'm Loving the pictures of Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary. They were fabulously bejewlled.

@DaisyDooley Thank you so much for your posts on the history of royal jewellery . 👏

Does it make me utterly foolish that the fact you came up with which surprised me the most is that Camilla doesn't have pierced ears. It makes complete sense now I think of it , my granny didn't , my mother doesn't - in those days I think it was considered rather "infra dig". But the hoops for heavy (pierced ) earrings makes great sense - otherwise they would be far too uncomfortable , even for the duration of a banquet.

I agree but even if they put them on display sometimes pieces get taken away to wear. The Edwardians exhibition at the Kings Gallery being a case in point. One of the tiaras - I think the Girls of Great Britain was meant to be in the exhibition but was then removed and not replaced with anything else. If they agree to lend something then they should honour that or replace it with something else. Its not as if there are no other tiaras that could have gone on display......

My grandmother and my mother have never had pierced ears.
My grandmother used to tell me it was only royals and true Romanies who had their ears pierced and that sadly she was neither.

Yes it did - but you will have to wait for pictures from those books!
Itwas to cover the IHT bill her children David and Sarah had from her estate.
She had lots of lovely ‘stuff’ but not much liquid cash - she had already given David her villa in Mustique to try and avoid even more IHT.
David promptly sold it which absolutely broke her heart.