Re: The Queen Mother's sapphire bracelet Archived Message
Posted by Arthur  on October 14, 2014, 3:07 am, in reply to "Re: The Queen Mother's sapphire bracelet"
Thank you, Baxter, for this picture.
I am not sure that these earrings are part of the sapphire suite presented as a wedding gift by Queen Mary. Queen Elizabeth could have acquired them later (when she had her ears pierced), or she could have them made later after her marriage, re-using stones from the necklace or the bracelet of the sapphire suite (which were never seen publicly).
It is strange that the Queen Mother did not wear more often these beautiful earrings. And it is always striking to realize that, while she almost always wore the same few jewels, QEQM had such a large jewel collection!
For instance, I am still puzzled to realize all the sapphire jewels that the Queen Mother owned, but never, or very rarely, wore.
Regularly worn sapphire jewels:
- her large wedding scroll brooch
- the modern flower brooch (worn by QEII at the CHOGM in Perth, Australia, in 2011)
Occasionally-but-not-too-often worn sapphire jewels:
- the sapphire earrings with diamond fringe (the ones we are discussing in this thread)
- the sapphire bracelet of the "quintet" of bracelets (QEQM wore this quintet only before WW2, and I do not remember seing QEII with the sapphire bracelet)
- the sapphire bracelet with diamond chain links on one side and sapphires on the other side (discussed in this thread, thanks to Baxter's discovery)
- Empress Maria Feodorovna large sapphire brooch (worn by QEII in Rome earlier this year)
- large Ceylon sapphire brooch (presented by QEQM to Diana in 1981, and mounted by Diana as the centre of her famous pearl choker).
Never, or almost never, sapphire jewels:
- the wedding-gift necklace from Queen Mary (never seen since 1923)
- the wedding-gift bracelet (never seen since 1923)
- the wedding-gift small oval brooch (never worn by QEQM, but presented to Princess Margaret, who wore it regularly, and now with Lady Sarah Chatto)
- the Sintzenich sapphire and diamond sautoir with pendant made in 1929 (mentioned in Roberts, page 202; occasionally worn in the 1ate 1920s-early 1930s, never seen since then)
- a "sapphire coronet" presented to QEQM by King George VI as a Christmas gift in 1937 (mentioned in Lionel Logue's diary, quoted in The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue - info disclosed on this board by our fellow poster Brock in January 2011).
I hope we will see these earrings soon. They are really beautiful. And they would make a nice match with Queen Mary's diamond bandeau with a large central sapphire (said to have belonged to Empress Maria Feodorovna)!
--Previous Message--
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: Here is another photo from 1953 showing the
: earrings.
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: I once thumbed through the book A Week in
: the Life of the Royal Family published in
: 1983 and I seem to recall the earrings
: making a couple of appearances there.
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