From "The Daily Alaska Empire" (Juneau, AK; dated July 5, 1951):
I was searching for something else on that website when I came across this photo of then-Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, who paid a visit to the Boys' Brigade at the Festival of Boyhood rally in London. She was wearing an ermine wrap over her white gown at that time but she also wore what's appeared to be a single diamond rivere necklace and this pair of earrings (it looks like a pearl in the center surrounded by maybe gold and small diamonds, perhaps). Is this the same pair of earrings now worn by her daughter, Princess Anne?
It's too bad that my link posted on this board does not include the zoom tool as shown in the newspaper photo I downloaded to my computer from the Library of Congress newspaper collection for you to use and zoom up.
What I see in the zoomed up image does not quite match the picture of the pair of earrings of the queen you posted. It's more like a narrow, long oval with something in the center. It does not look like a flower cluster with something in the center as shown in the picture you posted.
Interesting to see both these beautiful pairs of earrings--different from what Queen Elizabeth II most typically wore in later life (pearl/diamond combinations, pendant earrings). Queen Mary's ruby cluster earrings are an exception that I always loved seeing on HMQEII. I'd enjoy seeing the Princess of Wales wear some of these bejeweled cluster earring sets, which have more impact than the costume or small semi-precious pendant earrings Catherine often wears.
Previous Message
I do not know what Queen Elizabeth is wearing here - but could they be the same earrings?
Late last night, I looked up and found the information from the Library of Congress collection that may fit both your description and mine.
A portion from the "Evening Star" (Washington, D.C.; dated October 26, 1951):
Main title was "Princess Elizabeth's Jewels Are Many and Historic."
"Single dogwood blossom earrings also were presented (to) the Princess to wear with the Vancouver necklace (FYI: The Vancouver necklace is described below). For dress she usually selects large, single-petaled diamond rose earrings which cover the entire lobes of her ears. But now that she has had her ears pierced--a recent venture into jewelry-wearing for her---she can, and does, wear pendant earrings. Each earring in this set is a lozenge diamond, a stone about the size of the ace of diamonds on playing cards, suspended between two brilliants." End of this particular portion that made me think it fits what the then-Princess wore in that picture.
Now there is a long article about her "many and historic" jewels but I am not going to type the entire article here. Just important portions:
TIARAS:
**'Fairy-Queen Tiara"---her favorite. Diamonds are fashioned in an upstanding fleur-de-lis design with alternating rosebuds. The rose motif--it's the Rose of York being her heraldic flower. Given to her by her grandmother, Queen Mary, who herself received it as a wedding gift from the young ladies of Great Britain and Ireland in 1893.
**"Roseleaf Tiara"---a wedding gift to Princess Elizabeth from the Nizam of Hyderabad. Halo-shaped, it presents a more solid appearance than the Queen Mary gift. The pattern is rose leaves, buds, and tendrils, with 3 multi-petaled diamond roses in front, which unscrew and can form separate clips.
NECKLACES:
**(Princess Elizabeth) usually wears pearl necklaces in the daytime, with pearl button earrings or none at all.
**Diamond necklaces, reserved for night wear, include an all-diamond pendant necklace of 18th century design, another gift from the Nizam of Hyderabad.
**"Bandeau" necklace---wedding gift from her parents, the King and Queen of England. It's a "semi-rigid" necklace of wide diamond lace, inset with 15 large rubies, designed to form a deep V in front.
**A necklace of a cluster of colored gems, surrounded by diamonds, which was remounted from a necklace of her mother's.
**A new platinum, diamond, and emerald "dogwood" necklace given to her in Vancouver.
BRACELETS:
**According to news of that time, it said Princess Elizabeth never wore a lot of bracelets. Actually, she wore a lot when she became queen.
**A little baguette wrist watch with a few small diamonds, given to her on her 18th birthday.
**An all-diamond wrist watch with an incredibly small face, a wedding gift from the Watchmakers of Switzerland.
**A new wide gold bangle bracelet, richly engraved, given to her by the city of Windsor, Ontario.
**a York rose bracelet of diamonds and rubies, another gift from her grandmother Queen Mary. That was given to Mary from the people of Cornwall.
**When Elizabeth arrived in Canada, she wore a diamond and platinum maple leaf, a gift to her mother by the Canadians in 1939.
BROOCHES:
**A diamond single rose: a little French basket in gold, filled with diamond and sapphire flowers, and a pair of diamond star flowers.
**Insignia of a ruby and gold crest of the city of Quebec, a coat of arms of Ontario, intricately designed and worked out in the smallest detail and a badge of the 18th Highlanders in diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.
This completed the most important details in that long article. I know we all recognize most, if not all, of these descriptions shown above, but still, it's interesting to see that someone back then took a lot of care in describing these details.
Previous Message
It's too bad that my link posted on this board does not include the zoom tool as shown in the newspaper photo I downloaded to my computer from the Library of Congress newspaper collection for you to use and zoom up.
What I see in the zoomed up image does not quite match the picture of the pair of earrings of the queen you posted. It's more like a narrow, long oval with something in the center. It does not look like a flower cluster with something in the center as shown in the picture you posted.
on January 7, 2024, 4:52 pm
Previous Message
