The Queen’s Amethyst Floral Brooches

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The Queen’s collection of amethyst jewels is much smaller than her collections of many other gemstones, but the pieces she does have are particularly lovely and interesting. Today, we’re looking at a pair of brooches that go together: her Amethyst Floral Brooches.

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The set includes two coordinating brooches featuring amethysts and diamonds in a floral setting made of yellow gold. The pieces are quite similar but not the same; they feature the same design elements arranged differently. One of the brooches features a pair of larger pear-shaped amethysts at the top, while the other has one pear-shaped amethyst and one round amethyst at the top of the piece.

To my knowledge, the palace has never revealed any provenance information about the brooches. We do know, however, that the Queen has had them in her collection since at least the early 1990s. One early appearance came in 1993, when she wore one of the brooches for her annual Christmas Message. Interestingly, although the pieces are a coordinating pair, the Queen only ever wears them one at a time.

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The brooches have been particular favorites of the Queen over the past decade or so. In her Diamond Jubilee year, she often wore one of them for engagements with a lavender-colored ensemble. Above, she wears one of the brooches for a visit to Nine Springs Park in Yeovil during her Diamond Jubilee Tour in May 2012.

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She repeated the same outfit and brooch about a month later, wearing it for the fourth day of Royal Ascot in June 2012.

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She pinned one of the brooches to a vivid purple outfit for a Rugby World Cup reception at Buckingham Palace in October 2015.

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She often wears one of the brooches with one ensemble in particular: a dark purple coat and hat, which is decorated with white and purple flowers. Above, she pairs the brooch with the outfit for the 70th anniversary of the International Maritime Organization in London in March 2018.

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She wore the same combination for the official welcome ceremony during the Dutch state visit in October 2018…

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…and for a more somber event in April 2017: a memorial service in honor of her former brother-in-law, the late Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon.

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And in March 2019, she chose the brooch for another sentimental occasion: a reception to mark the 50th anniversary of the Prince of Wales’s investiture.