Re: More queries re Indian pearls with ruby snap (belonging to Queen of UK) Archived Message
Posted by Arthur on January 12, 2015, 11:54 am, in reply to "More queries re Indian pearls with ruby snap (belonging to Queen of UK)"
It is indeed one of the pearl necklaces that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother regularly wore during her husband's reign and during her long widowhood. So it must have been inherited by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. I have taken two screen captures from the video posted by Beth1, one frontside, the other backside: On the first (frontside) picture, we can clearly identify the main characteristics of this necklace: the gap between the longest row and the medium row is wider than the gap between the medium row and the shortest row. This detail can be seen on many previous and later pictures of the Queen Mother. So we can wonder if the longest row is an extra row, added to a two-row pearl necklace, or if it is a three-row pearl necklace. A clue in favour of the latter option is that QEQM seems to have always worn this necklace in the three-row version. (on other pictures of the Queen Mother, when the gap between the three rows of pearls is equal, then it is another pearl necklace, with a cushion-shaped diamond cluster clasp, possibly part of the Greville inheritance) On the second picture above, we can indeed see a dark spot at the clasp of the necklace. On the two pictures below, we can see that the necklace worn by the Queen Mother is the same as above, and that the clasp looks similar to the pearl necklace worn by Queen Elizabeth II a few times in the 2000s and in 2012: In a earlier thread (July 2014), we had suggested that this necklace was probably (part of) a pearl necklace with a ruby clasp bequeathed to the Crown by Queen Victoria, to whom it had been presented by the West Indies Company, from the treasure of the Maharajahs of Punjab. The full necklace was made of 222 pearls (source: Field) in four rows of 55, 55, 56 and 56 pearls (which sums up to 222 - source: Twining/Meylan); the necklace was reset in 1941 (source: Menkes). We can imagine that one or two rows could be made removable from the necklace. I had tried to count approximately the pearls on the necklace worn by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 (picture above), and I had counted approximately 110 pearls for the two shortest rows (i.e. 55 + 55...) and about 166 pearls with the third row (i.e. 55 + 55 + 56...).
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