The Belgian Sapphire Tiara

Welcome to September, the month of the glorious sapphire! Let’s kick things off with a post about a British sapphire tiara beloved by two generations of Windsors: the Belgian Sapphire Tiara.

You’ll also sometimes see this tiara called the “Victorian Sapphire Tiara.” That’s because it was acquired to coordinate with a set of Victorian-era sapphire jewels that the Queen already owned. She received the suite of sapphires—a necklace and earrings—from her father, King George VI, as a wedding present in 1947. The pieces were a century old, reportedly made around 1850. Noel Coward reportedly called the gems “the largest sapphires [he had] ever seen.” Later, the set was supplemented with a bracelet and a ring, and the necklace was redesigned slightly.

In 1963, ten years after she was crowned, the Queen decided to supplement her father’s sapphire gift with a tiara. She purchased a piece of jewelry that already had royal provenance: a nineteenth-century sapphire necklace that had once belonged to Princess Louise of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Louise, who was the daughter of the King Leopold II and Queen Henriette of Belgium, had a bit of a spending problem, to say the least. To satisfy her debts, her father auctioned off all of the jewels that had been left to her by her late mother. Whether or not this particular necklace was in that group of auctioned jewels is unclear to me, but at some point, the sapphires were definitely sold.

After it was purchased by Elizabeth II, the necklace was set on a frame by Garrard, and since then, it has been worn by the queen exclusively as a tiara. When you look closely at the piece, its former life as a necklace is clear. Gems that now stand upright would have been articulated drops on Louise’s necklace. Apparently the piece wasn’t created to be easily converted back to a necklace, which is a shame, because you all know I have a soft spot for royal jewels that can pull double duty.

The Queen wore this piece fairly frequently from the ’60s until the early ’90s, and then it retreated into the royal vaults for several years. In 2015 and 2016, the tiara made a surprise reappearance at a pair of state banquets for the presidents of China and Colombia. The Queen wore “white” jewels for evening almost exclusively in those days, so it was exciting to see her bring out a bit of color for a change.

One of the late Queen’s final appearances in the sapphires came in 2019, when she wore them for an official portrait taken at Windsor Castle.

After Elizabeth II passed away in 2022, the sapphires passed to King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The tiara has quickly become Camilla’s favorite piece from among the late Queen’s jewels. She made her debut in the tiara during the South African state visit in November 2022, and she’s worn it several more times since.