British sapphire and emerald flower brooch identifiedArchived Message
Posted by Arthur on July 11, 2015, 11:17 am
Among the brooches belonging to Queen Elizabeth II and pictured in Angela Kelly's book Dressing The Queen, published in 2012, there were a few surprises for jewels specialists, i.e. brooches which have never, or hardly never, been spotted on the Queen.
Among these unidentified brooches is a small sapphire and emerald brooch, whose shape conveys (to my mind) a flower and its petals, or maybe a rose window in a church. This is the second brooch from the left on the picture below, next to the well-known Prince Albert Brooch:
And a better close-up:
I have spotted only one occasion when Queen Elizabeth II wore this brooch: on May 17th, 1997, at the Royal Windsor Horse Show (which indicates that this brooch was not retained by the Queen Mother until her death in 2002):
Finally, while looking for something else (as always... ), I have found this group picture of the British Royal and Russian Imperial Families together at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, in August 1908 (or 1909, it is not clear):