1) I hope new King Charles III will uphold the level of pageantry of State visits, and will not remove, in the sake of "modernization" and expense-cuts, the white-die dinners, with guests displaying their medals and orders, and the ladies wearing tiaras and major jewellery. I know that the UK is currently facing serious economic hardships, but a black-tie, tiara-less dinner would not be one single penny cheaper to the British government, while it would be certainly duller. Let's keep our fingers crossed!
2) We don't know if the jewels which belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth II have already been divided between her heirs. Just speculation from me, but I guess it might take a few weeks before her last will is communicated to her heirs and before the dividing of the jewels actually takes place. In The Queen's Jewels, Leslie Field mentions that, after Queen Alexandra's death on 20th November, 1925, her children (minus Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife) gathered in Sandringham on 9th January, 1926 to divide their mother's belongings - i.e. seven weeks after the Queen's death. We are now just one month after Queen Elizabeth II's death, and we will be two months after during the South African State visit. So it might be possible that Queen Elizabeth II's jewels are still locked in their vault, waiting for the late Queen's instructions to be known. If it is the case, Queen Camilla, the Princess of Wales and the Countess of Wessex would have no other option, for the South African State visit, to use the jewels which are already at their disposal, either in full property or on loan from the late Queen (which still leaves all three of them with a nice panel of options ).
3) The jewels labelled "heirlooms of the Crown" will undoubtedly go to King Charles III. As for the rest of the collection, we can only speculate about who will inherit what, as Queen Elizabeth II's last will will very probably remain undisclosed to the public. It is possible that the bulk of the collection goes to the King as well, in order to avoid inheritance tax (possibly with instructions from the late Queen to her successor to leave some jewels on loan to other family members). But I would be surprised anyway that Princess Anne, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Zara Tindall, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York and Lady Louise of Wessex do not receive anything from their mother's/mother-in-law's/grand-mother's inheritance.
4) Interestingly, Leslie Field mentions, about the aforementioned dividing of Queen Alexandra's jewels in January 1926, that, though the late Queen's estate wad divided into four equal shares, King George V and Queen Mary "specifically included in their share those jewels that in 1863 had been wedding gifts to Queen Alexandra from her husband, the then Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria and civic bodies, as well as the jewellery that Queen Victoria had left to Queen Alexandra as personal bequests in 1901".
If the same criterias are followed, then King Charles III would receive all the jewels which Queen Elizabeth II had inherited from Queen Mary in 1953 or from Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 2002, as well as the jewels received from cities, regiments, Commonwealth countries and provinces and other various "civic bodies", and also probably the jewels officially presented to the late Queen by foreign heads of State. That would possibly leave for other heirs all the jewels that Queen Elizabeth II received privately from friends or family members or that she acquired personally (just to name a few, and not minor ones: the Burmese ruby tiara, the Barings ruby necklace, King George VI's sapphire suite, the Williamson pink diamond flower brooch, the Godman emerald necklace, the Jardine star brooch, the Grima ruby and gold brooch, the aquamarine double-clip, the three Nizam of Hyderabad rose brooches...).
All this being said, and being aware that it is so far very much speculation, I now come back to the impending South-African State visit to the UK:
- an appearance of the Cullinan "chips" would be nice, as the Cullinan was found in South Africa and was presented to King Edward VII by the Government of Transvaal:
- similarly, it would be nice to see again the South African diamond necklace (and the matching bracelet) presented in 1947 by the South African government to the then Princess Elizabeth on her 21st birthday. But I think this thin, delicate necklace, would not suit a mature lady like Queen Camilla: in my opinion, it would look better with the younger Catherine, Princess of Wales (possibly with a small Art Deco-style tiara, like the Cartier Halo tiara or Queen Mary's diamond bandeau, respectively worn on their wedding day by Catherine and Meghan):
- I would LOVE to see Queen Camilla wearing (at last) the Teck crescent tiara, which had been loaned to her by the Queen Elizabeth II, but which she has never worn publicly:
- I would appreciate that Queen Camilla wears the Duchess of Kent amethyst demi-parure. Not only it is not very much associated with the late Queen, as Elizabeth II has worn it only a couple of times in the 1980s (notably for a State visit to Portugal), but the purple colour of the amethysts would be a sensitive half-mourning tribute to the late Queen:
- if the Princess of Wales does not wear the South African demi-parure, I would love to see her wearing the set of emerald and diamond jewels with Welsh symbols (pendant, brooch, bracelet, earrings) presented to Queen Alexandra, then Princess of Wales, as wedding gifts from Welsh communities (the various pieces of the set have been occasionally worn - separately - by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and by the Duchess of Cornwall, and the pendant was also frequently worn by Diana, Princess of Wales). That would be a nice and symbolic way to mark Catherine's new status as Princess of Wales. These jewels could be nicely matched with the Greville emerald tiara (the one worn by Princess Eugenie of York on her wedding day):
The South African diamond set was personal property of the Queen. I suspect it may therefore have been left to one of her other children, while the King and his heirs received the major state jewels.
I hope the Princes of Wales will wear QEII's south african diamond set (necklace + bracelet), I think it will be fantastic on her
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