Our dear Marianne has updated the banner of the GREMB in honnor of the birthday girl HM Queen Sofia of Spain (thank you Marianne!). As a profund admirer of this most wonderful Queen I thought it would be a fitting tribute to start a thread on her jewelry, wishing her a much happy day and many happy returns.
The stunning royal heirloom jewels (las joyas de pasar, the jewelry that according to Queen Ena's will should be passed on to the future Queens of Spain, and are now with Queen Letizia) have been discussed here on previous threads, so I thought it would be interesting to post on some of the queen's other pieces of jewelry, less frequently worn. I am excluding the more classical and frequently worn pieces (her prussian tiara, the foam waves, the floral, her various diamond necklaces, diamond brooches...) HM has a very vast private jewelry collection, some of those pieces have been seen only on counted ocasions through the years.
(Credits to the pics: my archives, scanned old Hola magazines, some pictures found on Foros de la Realeza)
Looking at the Getty pic posted by Marianne and looking through my files I notest the two shoulder clips. Could these be the same clips, worn at the Kent wedding and at King Filipe's enthronement? I haven't notest them before. On the right pic the queen is wearing her mother's rubi pendant.
Queen Sofia has two turquoise sets she rarely worns. This is the only photo I've ever seen of the 2nd set, the one with larger stones, it was taken during an event with the swedish royals in the late 1980's.
The queen has also several rubi necklaces, apart from the more famous wedding gift Niarchos rubis. She usually wears them with her stunning swirl rubi art-deco earrings. The V shape rubi necklace was worn mainly during the late 70's early 80's, reapearing again for the Chilean visit in 2011. It has a matching pair of V shaped bracelets.
The tassel rubi necklace, loaned also to the then Pss of Astúrias
The fringe rubi necklace was loaned to her daughter Infanta Elena in the early 1980's. Queen Sofia has worn it in recent years with a pair of rubi and gold matching bracelets.
The queen has other rubi necklaces not seen in years
She also has a rubi set gift from Saudi royals (she wore it only for a saudi visit)
Also of most likely saudi origin are these huge sapphire earrings (worn also during a saudi visit). During a visit to Thailand the queen wore also a huge set of saphire bracelet and ring. The diamond bracelet is one of the twins from Queen Ena's joyas de pasar.
The queen has other sapphires in her collection. A classical set she has worn for many years, and a big pale blue cabichon sapphire surrended by diamonds that can be worn as brooch or pendant.
The emerald set, worn here at the Astúrias wedding, and loaned later to the Pss of Astúrias.
Queen Maria Cristina black pearls necklace. Such a beautiful and modern looking necklace, I almost could'nt believe it came from QMC.
The comet brooch. A gift from Franco, Pss Sofia wore it for the christening of Pc Filipe. The queen rarely wore it. Here in a pic from a visit to Italy in the 1980's.
The queen has a lot of more modern necklaces and brooches. A Bulgari necklace with pink tourmaline, aquamarine, peridot and citrine (the queen's differs a bit from the one in Bulgari catalogue but its the same collection).
The eye of time brooch by Salvador Dalí.
Queen Sofia has alot more jewels in her private collection, and luckily we get to see them from time to time. A lot of jewelry available for future generations (Leonor, Sofia, Vitoria Frederica, Irene...).
on November 2, 2015, 1:44 pm
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