I certainly don't know whether my thought - that the gift from the City of London may be the diamond and pearl choker we are familiar with - is correct.
All that I can say with certainty is that the gift from the City of London was a collar of pearls and diamonds, and that the quote used by Pope Hennessy in his biography of Queen Mary proves that, at least on one occasion, HM wore the jewel.
Newspaper reports in 1893 variously referred to the gift as a necklace and a collar; however, the sketch in The Penny Illustrated Paper 14 October 1893 suggests to me that the jewel was a collar/choker, as did the quote used by Pope Hennessy (p 430) as Queen Mary recorded that she wore the "City collar between rows of diamonds, four rows of Crown pearls..."
Queen Mary was, according to media reports in 1893, given a number of pearl necklaces as wedding presents. I don't have access to all the newspapers published at the time. Nor have I done an exhaustive search, so what I have listed below is probably not all such gifts the Queen received. There may be more comprehensive information in the descriptive catalogue of HM's wedding gifts published by the Imperial Institute. Does anyone have access to a copy of this? Hopefully, others with more knowledge than I have will add to the list.
One was from King George V.
Others included the gift from the Combined Counties said to have cost 5 thousand pounds, a necklace from Kent, the Ladies of England tiara/necklace and the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara/necklace.
Hearth and Home 13 July 1893
Times 3 July 1893.
The Graphic 15 July 1893
A single strand was presented by the Ladies of Glasgow.
The Graphic 15 July 1893
I have seen 3 reports which state that the Thakore of Gondal gave HM a pearl and diamond necklace. It is mentioned in the extract from Heath and Home above. And also
The Penny Illustrated Paper 8 July 1893 p 33
Morning Post 26 June 1893 p 5.
--Previous Message-- : I have always been under the impression (and I : can't remember where I got that impression) : that the diamond and pearl collar under : discussion was a wedding gift to Queen Mary : from members of her family. Was there : another necklace, made of pearls and : diamonds, she received from family members : or was I completely wrong all along? :
on September 15, 2016, 8:51 pm, in reply to "
