I simply suggested that we have neither a photographic evidence of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother wearing Queen Adelaide's Fringe Necklace/Tiara before 1953-1954, nor of Queen Mary wearing it after 1936 (and even after the 1920s). So there is a gap in the 1930s and 1940s during which this necklace/tiara could have been in Queen Mary's as well as in Queen Elizabeth's hands. As Queen Mary seemed to be very respectful about the rules regarding the Crown jewels, I suspect that she probably handed over this jewel to Queen Elizabeth in 1936, but we need further documentation from the Royal Collection to be sure.
--Previous Message-- : : Exactly, I meant to write in my previous : that the reason QEII waived her inheritance : of the fringe necklace was because her own : London fringe was so similar. : But I was in a hurry to go out and I spelt : waived without a i. : And to Arthur I will be very interested if : someone can produce evidence of Queen : Elizabeth wearing the fringe necklace as : consort. : It would an irony that she only started : wearing a necklace she had been entitled to : at the moment she was no longer Queen. : : : --Previous Message-- : : I have it! : : QEII had her own London fringe necklace. So : similar to the heirloom one. : So QEII lent the heirloom one to QEQM. : : But all theories require Queen Mary to have : hung on to an heirloom fringe and I don't : think that was like her. : : Edit: perhaps on QEQM becoming Queen, Queen : Mary had offered the heirloom one but QEQM : could not wear it as a tiara - effectively. : None of them could, so Queen Mary offered : her own fringe tiara to Queen Elizabeth (QM) : instead. : : --Previous Message-- : Merlin, : : your suggestion that the Fringe Necklace was : bequeathed by Queen Mary to Queen-Mother : Elizabeth relies on the fact that the : Queen-Mother never wore this necklace before : 1953 and wore it quite frequently after this : date. That makes it a plausible argument. : : Nevertheless, we can also notice that Queen : Mary was never seen wearing Queen Adelaide's : Fringe (whether as a tiara or as a necklace) : after the 1920s. As Queen Adelaide's Fringe : was a Crown heirloom, it makes sense that : Queen Mary handed this necklace/tiara to : Queen Elizabeth in 1936. After, for whatever : reason, Queen Elizabeth never wore it during : her husband's reign, but we can not exclude : that the necklace was already at her : disposal from the late 1930s on. : : : --Previous Message-- : : Arthur might well be right I don't see much : evidence of a third fringe. : What I do still think is that there is no : visual evidence I have ever seen of QEQM : wearing a fringe necklace as Queen. : All those evening events in Canada and South : Africa along with a host at home. : I could well accept that on Queen Mary's : death in 1953 the present Queen waved her : bequest of the Diamond Fringe Necklace and : let her Mother have a life time loan of it. : I come back to my original point that it is : 1953 of all years that QEQM starts to wear : the fringe necklace. : And from then it comes out often. : : : : : : --Previous Message-- : : Arthur - your paras - : : First - I completely agree, and think there : was also that gorgeous pearl brooch of QV : : Second - strongly support you there. I have : never seen it, as far as I can possibly : know. : : Third - not really convinced - not the same : need. : : Don't know about the sapphires. : : Final - I strongly support that the Durbar : never belonged to QEQM. Years ago the Royal : Insight Q&As supported my belief. : : : --Previous Message-- : Apparently, for whatever reason, Queen : Elizabeth the Queen Mother retained with : her, after her husband's death and her : daughter's accession, several of the jewels : considered as Crown heirlooms, which she had : received from Queen Mary in 1936 and which : she should normally have handed over to : Queen Elizabeth II in 1952. The most famous : examples are Queen Victoria's Oriental : Diadem and Ruby Parure and Queen Victoria's : Household Diamond Jubilee Brooch, but it is : also the case with Queen Adelaide's Fringe : Necklace (Hugh Roberts' The Queen's : Diamonds explicitely confirms that it was : retained by the Queen Mother until her death : in 2002). The Queen (Elizabeth II) would : have been entitled to claim these jewels : back as soon as 1952, but she probably did : not want to enter an argument with her : mother (considering probably she had enough : jewels for herself on her own). : : Therefore, I am getting more and more : suspicious about the very existence of a : fringe necklace from Princess Victoria. As : far as I know, we have never seen pictures : or portraits of Princess Victoria with a : fringe necklace (or a fringe tiara), this : necklace is never mentioned in any of the : autoritative documentation about the British : royal jewels (Field's or Roberts' books, : Royal Collection's website...), and we have : the confirmation by Roberts that the fringe : necklace worn by the Queen Mother is from : Queen Adelaide, and not from Princess : Victoria... : : I agree with Merlin that, as Queen Mary : bequeathed some jewels to her younger : daughters-in-law, the Duchesses of : Gloucester and of Kent, there would be no : reason to treat Queen-Mother Elizabeth : differently and to deny her any bequest : (both Queens were known to be in good terms, : and the fact that QEQM's husband was already : dead when Queen Mary died in 1953 could not : have been a reason, as it was the case for : the Duchess of Kent too). : : Regarding the jewels which could have been : bequeathed by Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth : the Queen Mother, Leslie Field mentions a : sapphire and diamond brooch "almost : identical [to the Prince Albert Brooch] , : which had been bought in 1937 by Queen Mary : from the London jeweller S. J. Phillips. It : was one of a set of three that had been part : of the French Crown Jewels. Queen Mary : bequeathed it to Queen Elizabeth in : 1953" . Actually, I am puzzled by this : assertion, as I can not identify which : brooch this could be (all the sapphire : brooches I have seen in the British Royal : Family are different-looking from The French : Crown Jewels sapphire brooches). The three : brooches are, on the pictures below, linked : to the top of the earrings and as the clasp : of the necklace on our left: : : : : There is also the example of another : sapphire and diamond brooch, from Russian : origin, thought to have been purchased in : 1934 by Queen Mary from the daughters of the : late Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna. Queen : Elizabeth the Queen Mother wore this brooch : regularly (though not frequently) throughout : her life, so we can guess it was a bequest : from Queen Mary. Queen Elizabeth II wore : this brooch for the first (and until now : only) time on 3rd April 2014 when she paid : an official visit to Italian President : Giorgio Napolitano and to Pope Francis in : Rome. : : : : : And finally, there is the unclear situation : of the Delhi Durbar diamond tiara. It was a : private belonging of Queen Mary (made in : 1911 with the diamonds from a Boucheron loop : tiara made in 1902 with diamonds presented : in 1901 to Queen Mary, then Duchess of York, : by the directors of the De Beers Mine, Cape : Town). Hugh Roberts mentions it was : "loaned" to Queen(-Mother) : Elizabeth for the South African Tour in 1947 : (which implies it was still considered as : Queen Mary's private property) and since : then retained by the Queen-Mother until her : death in 2002. Maybe Queen Mary bequeathed : the tiara to Queen Elizabeth the Queen : Mother (though the latter already had the : use of it). : : Queen Mary probably bequeathed to Queen : Elizabeth the Queen Mother some smaller : jewels (bracelets, rings...), but I have not : tried to hunt for that. : : Best wishes, : : Arthur : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
on September 1, 2014, 8:42 am, in reply to "
