Posted by jinja on February 6, 2013, 9:03 pm, in reply to "Cullinans"
This is the Tower of London's description of the crown of Queen Elizabeth (later QM):
"The Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1937) is set with 2,800 diamonds including the most famous diamond in the Jewel House, the Koh-i-Nûr (or Mountain of Light). Since arriving in Britain in 1850, this Indian diamond has been set in various ways including in two previous queen consorts’ crowns."
The two previous consort crowns belonged to Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary. Queen Mary's crown also originally contained Cullinans 3 and 4. The picture in Nellie's post shows Cullinan 4 still in place on the band of her crown worn without the arches. For that portrait, Queen Mary wore Cullinan 3 as a pendant, and Cullinans 1 and 2 as a brooch.
I think there is confusion between the crowns of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth (QM). The latter is described as still containing the Koh-i-noor diamond and below it the 17 carat diamond presented to Queen Victoria by the sultan of Turkey. I have seen no description of this crown which indicates that these two diamonds have ever been replaced by anything else.