Posted by Arthur on February 5, 2015, 7:51 am, in reply to "Re: To Franck"
Franck,
I agree with Baxter:
- no indication proves that the (presumably) "Kuwaiti" necklace comes from Queen Mary. We have never seen pictures of Queen Mary wearing such a necklace, and the earliest pictures of Queen Elizabeth II wearing it do not date back earlier than the late 1970s/early 1980s. The fact that QE2 wore this pearl necklace along with other jewels coming from Queen Mary, or for a Christmas message during which the memory of King George V and Queen Mary was conveyed might just as well be mere coincidences. I do not exclude the necklace might come from Queen Mary, but I think it is not the most probable hypothesis.
- the "Kuwaiti" necklace has three distinctive characteristics: the presence of oblong or irregular (i.e. not perfectly round) pearls, a sharp graduation in the size of the pearls (i.e. the pearls at the front are much bigger than the pearls at the back) and a distinctive "V shape" at the bottom when hanging around the Queen's neck. On the contrary, the necklace worn by QE2 in 1979 during the return dinner of her State visit to Kuwait looks different: * the pearls looks rounder (but as we have no close-up pictures, it is difficult to be sure) * the pearl size graduation does not look as sharp as in the "Kuwaity" necklace * and the bottom of the necklace lies with an oval shape on the Queen's upper chest, instead of the characteristic "V shape" that we can clearly see on all other pictures on which the "Kuwaity" necklace is worn (but we can not exclude that this effect might be a consequence from the fact that, during her 1979 Gulf tour, the Queen wore dresses covering her skin up to the base of her neck; therefore the necklace laid on the fabric, not directly on the Queen's skin, possibly modifying the visual shape of the necklace).
The necklace worn in Kuwait in 1979 (picture on the left) / the (presumably but not proven) "Kuwaity" necklace (picture on the right):