The Countdown to the Royal Wedding - The Royal Family Orders

Welcome to the Gracie Jewellery countdown to the Royal Wedding- Part 12

3 Days to go

The tradition of most royal families, Family Orders are the personal gift of the Sovereign and are given to female members of the immediate family. In Great Britain this custom was introduced by King George I, the first of the Hanoverian monarchs. Until the end of Queen Victoria's reign the Order consisted of a cameo miniature set in diamonds, King Edward VII introduced its present form of a portrait painted on ivory.

A new Family Order is established at the start of each reign; the list of those to whom it is given is never publicized. The first anyone know of its presentation is when the recipient wears the Order in public. The 18 year old Princess Anne was give the Order on April 23, 1969 and Diana, the Princess of Wales received hers in November 1982, sixteen months after her marriage. The Badge is worn with evening dress only, or on State occasions, on the left shoulder attached to a heavy moire-silk fringed bow.

The King George V Family Order was established in 1911. His Majesty is portrayed in the uniform of Admiral of the Fleet wearing the Star and Riband of the Garter and the Badge of the Royal Victorian Order. The miniature is surrounded by large brilliant cut diamonds and surmounted by a diamond Imperial crown, within which can be seen a crimson enamelled cap of maintenance. Hidden by the crown is a platinum brooch pin. The back of the Order is gold, and set on it is the royal cypher in diamonds and the date 1911.The pale blue riband bow is the same colour as that of the Royal Guelphic Order of Hanover.

The King George VI Family Order was established in 1937. His Majesty wears the uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, the Star and Riband of the Garter and the Royal Victorian Chain. In the border, baguette diamonds are placed between every two brilliant cut diamonds. The Imperial crown on top is of a slightly different design than that of the King George V Order. The back of the Order is gold as is the raised royal cypher and the date 1937. The riband bow is pale pink.

The Queen wears both the King George VI Family Order on top and the King George V Family Order on the bottom.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother wears her Queen Elizabeth II Family Order and King George VI Family Order.

The Queen Elizabeth II Family Order was established in 1953. The Queen's portrait show her in evening dress and wearing the King George IV State Diadem and the Star and Riband of the Garter. A baguette diamond is set between every three brilliant cut diamonds in the border and on top is a diamond Tudor crown over a red enamel cap of maintenance. The back is 18 carat gold with the royal cypher and St Edward's Crown superimposed in gold and enamel. The chartreuse yellow riband bow is two inches wide.

Diana, Princess of Wales wears her Queen Elizabeth II Family Order

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall wears her Queen Elizabeth II Family Order

Next time - Royal Engagement Rings

from the book - The Queen's Jewels by Leslie Fielding

Countdown to the Royal Wedding - The Royal Regalia

Welcome to the Gracie Jewellery countdown to the Royal Wedding- Part 11

4 Days to go



The items that comprise the Crown Regalia are not just decorative objects but the visible proof of royalty; they are symbols of the power and authority handed down from generation to generation. The Crown Regalia belongs to the State and is displayed to the public in the Jewel House of the Tower of London-attracting nearly two million visitors a year.

The King George IV State Diadem
In 1821 King George IV was busy acting as stage manager for his won Coronation and designed a completely new crown for the ceremony. He wanted his crown to have a floral design, but the Privy Council ruled that this would be improper, at the Coronation crown had always had fleur-de-lys motifs, even prior to Edward the Confessor. Instead he used the floral emblems for his diadem and but a last minute change of mind he never wore it. In 1838 the diadem was reset with pearls and diamonds from the royal collection and worn for the first time by Queen Victoria at her Cornonation. For the next thirty years she wore it constantly: at her children's christenings and weddings; at State banquets; even at a dinner at Cambridge University. She is pictured wearing it on the world's first postage stamp issued in 1840.

The completely circular diadem has four crosses pattee set with diamonds, repesenting St. George, the front one with a rare honey-coloured diamond in the centre; and four diamond bouquets incorporating roses, thistles and shamrocks, the emblems of the United Kingdom. The diamond scrollwork band, remounted for Queen Alexandra in 1902, is framed between two rows of pearls-eighty one in the upper row and eighty eight in the lower row.

The Queen inherited the diadem in 1952 on the death of her father. Because the Queen wears the diadem to and from the State Opening of Parliament each year, and is pictured with it on all United Kingdom postage stamps, the diadem is seen by more millions of people than any other item of royal jewellery.

The Imperial State Crown is a copy of the one made for King George IV's Coronation in 1821 and has an open work frame thickly encrusted with diamonds. The frame is gold, the settings of the stones are silver. The circumference is 23¼", the height 12 3/8" and it weighs 2 lbs 13 oz. It is set with 2,873 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 5 rubies. The circlet base has alternate emeralds and sapphires surrounded by diamonds. In the centre front is the 317.4 carat Cullinan II, the Second Star of Africa set in the crown by King George V in 1911. Above is a band of 109 pearls invisibly strung as a necklace, and below is another string of 128 pearls. Mounted on the circlet are upright fleurs-de-lys and crosses pattee covered in diamonds with emeralds and rubies set alternately as the centre stones of each motif. Just above the Cullinan II in a jewelled Maltese cross, is a giant irregularly shaped ruby spinel known as the "Black Prince's ruby". The crown's four oak leaf covered arches are set with rose-cut diamonds and oriental pearl acorns. At the apex, below the diamond set globe, hang four large pear shaped pearl drops. Atop all is the diamond cross pattee with the most ancient gem in all the Regalia. This is a square sapphire, ½" across, that was said to have been set in the 1043 Coronation Ring of King Edward the Confessor, the last of the Saxon line. When the Cullinan diamond was set in the crown for the 1911 Coronation for King George V, it replaced a very large oblong partly pierced sapphire, 1 3/4 by 1 1/16 inches and one inch thick, which was then moved to a similar position at the back of the browband.

Queen Victoria wore this crown for her Coronation. At the State banquet that night, Lord Melbourne complained that he had found the Sword of State very heavy to carry, the Queen told him: "So was the Crown. It hurt me a good deal."

When King George V wore the crown for the 1924 State Opening he wrote: My speech was, I think, the longest on record and took 20 minutes to read. The crown gave me an awful headache. I could not have borne it much longer."

Queen Elizabeth on her Coronation Day june 2, 1953. Her Majesty is wearing the purple Cornonation Robe trimmed with ermine, gold Garter Collar and dress of white satin with coloured beaded embroidery of the flower emblems of Great Britain and the Dominions, among them the English Tudor rose, Scottish thistle, Irish shamrock, Welsh leek, Canadian maple leaf, Australian wattle and Indian lotus flower. Photographer Cecil Beaton was waiting to take the official photographs and later wrote in his diary: 'The Queen looked extremely minute under her robes and Crown, her nose and hands chilled and her eyes tired. "Yes", in reply to my question, "the Crown does get rather heavy." She had been wearing it for nearly three hours.'

Next time - The Royal Family Orders

from the book - The Queen's Jewels by Leslie Fielding

The Countdown to the Royal Wedding - Pearls

Welcome to the Gracie Jewellery countdown to the Royal Wedding- Part 10

5 Days to go

Queen Alexandra loved pearls and always wore a pearl choker to hide a scar on her neck

The Queen Anne and the Queen Caroline Necklaces
These 2 strands of large lustrous graduated pearls with pearl clasps are always worn together. The top strand of forty six pearls weighs 1,045 gramms and is said to have belonged to Queen Ann, the last of the Stuart monarchs.

Queen Caroline wife of King George II had a great deal of valuable jewellery including four very fine pearl necklaces. After wearing all of them at her Coronation the fifty best pearls were made into a single strand necklace. These are at the bottom of the picture. This strand weighs 1,429.2 gramms. Both necklaces were given to Princess Elizabeth when she married. The Princess wore both strands when she married Prince Philip.

Strands of pearls are favourite day time jewellery of both the Queen and the Queen Mom.

Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Necklace
In 1887, the "Women of the British Empire" each gave between a penny and a pound to provide a celebratory memorial for the Queen's fifty years on the throne. Part of the money raised was used to commission a large equestrian statue of Prince Albert but the rest of the money was spent on this necklace, which was presented Queen Victoria on June 24, 1887. The design is of graduated diamond trefoils, each with a pearl centre. The centre piece is a quatrefoil of diamonds with a a pearl centre and drop pendant. Surmounting it is a pearl and diamond crown. It is possible to detach the centre piece and wear it as a pendant. Queen Victoria left the necklace to the Crown in 1901. There are at least three necklaces of this design in existence. Princess Alexandra, the Hon. Mrs Angus Ogilvy, was given one as a wedding gift by her husband in April 1963, and it only lacks a crown on top of the quatrefoil to be indistinguishable from the Queen's.

Queen Mary's Pendant Earrings
These earrings were converted by Queen Mary from a pendant necklace. Each has an oval pearl suspended from a collet diamond hanging in an ornate frame of scroll design, set with diamonds.

The Queen wears the necklace and earrings in Nepal on a State visit in 1986

Queen Alxandra's Dagmar Necklace
In 1863 King Frederick VII of Denmark had the crown jeweller in Copenhagen design this necklace in the Byzantine style as a wedding gift for his daughter, Princess Alexandra, later Queen Alexandra of England. It had 118 pearls and 2,000 diamonds. Festoons connecting gold medallions, with a large diamond in the middle of each, surround a centre piece of diamond set scrollwork. The two large pear-shaped pendant pearls on either side were so valuable they had been exhibited at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851. This is shown in its original case. Hanging on a gold loop from the centre piece is a cloisonne enamel facsimile of the 11th centry gold Dagmar Cross.

The Queen attending a dinner at the German Embassy in London in 1958. She has removed the cross and the two large pearl drops the the Dagmar necklace.

Queen Alexandra's Triple Drop Necklace and Brooch
Made by Garrard and given to Princess Alexandra by the Prince of Wales as a wedding present in 1863. The necklace has eight circular clusters of diamonds with a large pearl in the centre of each, connected by festoons of diamonds. From each of the three front cluster hangs a pear shaped pearl. Shown in its original case.

Princess Alexandra wearing the brooch in 1896.

Queen Elizabeth wearing the brooch in 1972 while on a State visit to France, reportedly the only time she has worn it.

Queen Mary's Kensington Bow Brooch.
In July 1893, the committee of the Kensington Wedding-Gift Fund representing the inhabitants of Kensington presented her with this bow-shaped diamond brooch with a large oriental pearl drop. It was made by Collingwood and Company. She wore the brooch at King Edward VII's Coronation and at her own in 1911.

The Queen inherited the Kensington bow brooch in 1953. Here she wears it in 1986 when she attended a dinner given by the President of West Germany during his State visit to Great Britain. Her six-row pearl necklace set with different sized diamond plaques and the matching earrings were a gift to the Queen from the Amir of Qatar on her 1979 visit to the Gulf States.

The Duchess of Cambridge's Pendant Brooch
A baroque pearl in a diamond set mount hangs from a diamond pendant below a large round pearl framed by fourteen brilliant cut diamonds. The Brooch belonged to Queen Mary's grandmother, Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge. It was inherited by her younger daughter, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck. She died intestate in 1897 and her jewellery was divided among her four children, this brooch being part of Queen Mary's portion.

Queen Elizabeth inherited the brooch in 1953 and wears it here on her 48th birthday on April 21, 1974

The Duchess of Teck's Corsage Brooch
This corsage jewel is typically Victorian in design. The brooch consists of a large pearl set in a circle of diamonds enclosed in a diamond plaited scroll frame with twelve collet stones set around the edge. A U-shaped chain of large collet diamonds ends in three pendant drops.

Queen Mary gave this brooch to Queen Elizabeth as a wedding gift and she wore it here as she arrived in Nepal in 1961

The large diamond and sapphire brooch pinned on Diana, Princess of Wales, dress was a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. This blue velvet dress with a collar made from antique lace that belonged to Queen Victoria, was designed especially for this brooch. But Diana didn't wear brooches to often.

Diana had this spectacular pearl choker made with the brooch as the centre piece. If given the choice of one piece of Royal jewellery to call my own, this would be my pick. Absolutely stunning.

Next time - The Crown Regalia

From the book - The Queen's Jewels by Leslie Fielding

Countdown to the Royal Wedding - Coloured Stone Brooches

Welcome to the Gracie Jewellery countdown to the Royal Wedding- Part 7
8 Days to go.

Queen Mary's Russian Brooch
Queen Alexandra's sister, the Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, gave Princess May of Teck (the future Queen Mary) this brooch of a large square cut diamond and a square cut cabochon sapphire set in a scroll frame of round diamonds as a wedding present in 1893.

Queen Elizabeth wears the brooch in 1974

Queen Mary's Emerald Brooch I
Part of the Cambridge Emeralds, this cabochon emerald is surrounded by 2 rows of diamonds with an emerald drop

Queen Elizabeth wears one of her favourite brooches in 1979

The diamond and emerald scroll brooch also belonged to Queen Mary

The Prince Albert Brooch
A large oblong sapphire surrounded by twelve round diamonds was given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert on February 9, 1840 at Buckingham Palace. It was the day before their wedding and Queen Victoria wrote in her diary "dearest Albert came upstairs to her sitting room and gave her four fans and a beaufiful sapphire and diamond brooch."

Queen Victoria wears the Prince Albert brooch on her wedding day.

Next time - Coloured Stone Necklaces

from the book - The Queen's Jewels by Leslie Fielding

Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth April 21, 1926

Countdown to the Royal Wedding -Diamond Necklaces

Welcome to the Gracie Jewellery countdown to the Royal Wedding - Part 4

11 Days to go.

Queen Victoria's Collet Necklace and Earrings

Made in 1858 this necklace adds up to 161 carats. The nine largest stones weighing between 8.25 and 11.25 carats. The pendant stone is known as the Lahore diamond and the drops in the earrings come from a ruby necklace she had been given.

Queen Elizabeth wore the set at her Coronation in 1953 and shown here in 1961 while on an official visit to Sierra Leone.

The King George Festoon Necklace.
Made in 1947, King George used 105 loose diamonds he had inherited.

Queen Elizabeth wears the necklace here in 1962.

The King Faisal of Saudi Arabia Necklace
The king bought this necklace of drop diamonds set with brilliant and baguette diamonds made by Harry Winston and presented it to the Queen in 1967 when he visited England.

Diana, Princess of Wales wears the King Faisal Necklace on a state visit to Australia in 1983.

Next time Diamond Earrings

from the book The Queen's Jewels by Leslie Fielding

Royal Wedding Countdown - Tiara's

Today we start with the tiara's. Because what is a princess without a tiara!

The Russian Fringe Tiara.

Solid diamond bars in the shape of a peasant headdress. This was a gift to Princess Alexandra from the Ladies of Society on her Silver Wedding anniversary in 1888.

Queen Alexandra of Denmark was married to King Edward VII

Queen Mary. Born Princess May of Teck married King George V in 1893.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (formerly Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon) was married to King George VI

The Bow Knot Tiara. This tiara was made for Queen Mary by Garrard in 1914, using pearls she had been given as a wedding present.

The tiara originally had a top row of pearls. Do you see the pendant pearls on her necklaces? These were some that were on the top row.

Queen Elizabeth gave this tiara to Diana, Princess of Wales as a wedding gift.

The Diamond Fringe Tiara. This can also be worn as a necklace.

It was first worn by Queen Victoria in 1839. In this painting she holds her son Prince Arthur circa 1851.

A young Queen Mary

Princess Anne wore it on her wedding day as did her mother Queen Elizabeth.

The "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland" Tiara. In 1893 a committee was formed to raise money from the "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland" to purchase a wedding gift for Princess May of Teck. This tiara was purchased from Garrards.

Queen Mary gave this tiara to Queen Elizabeth as a wedding gift.

The scroll tiara is one of a half dozen tiara's the Queen Mother wore as the Duchess of York just after her marriage in 1823 to her accession to the throne in 1936. She gave it to Queen Elizabeth but she has never worn it in public.

Queen Elizabeth loaned the tiara to her sister, Princess Margaret in 1962

and then her daughter, Princess Anne in 1973.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother wore this tiara in the style of the day.

She gave the tiara to Princess Margaret.

Princess Michael of Kent wears the diamond tiara she inherited from her mother-in-law, Princess Marina of Greece,who married George VI's brother, the Duke of Kent in 1934.

The Duchess of Gloucester in the diamond and turqouise suite, given to her by here mother-in-law, Pricess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. These were given by Queen Mary to the former Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott married her son Prince Hnery, Duke of Gloucester in 1935.

These are just a few of the Royal Tiara's.

Next time, a Royal Lady in Pink

pictures from the Queen's Jewels by Leslie Field