![The emerald and diamond necklace designed for the Delhi Durbar on display in the Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration exhibition which forms part of the summer opening of Buckingham Palace on June 28, 2012](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-0525-delhidurbar01.png?resize=1200%2C799&ssl=1)
We’ve reached the top three of our Platinum Jubilee countdown of ten of the Queen’s most sparkling platinum jewels! Today’s piece, the Delhi Durbar Necklace, combines gleaming platinum with sparkling diamonds and May’s exquisite emerald birthstone.
![Photograph of Queen Mary wearing the Delhi Durbar tiara with emeralds, Dehli Durbar necklace and stomacher, plus the star of the Order of the Garter, ca. 1913](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-0525-delhidurbar06.png?resize=1200%2C1881&ssl=1)
The necklace is strikingly modern, but it’s more than a century old. The jewel was made in 1911 for Queen Mary to wear at the Delhi Durbar, a coronation celebration in India. It was part of a much larger parure of diamond and emerald jewels.
![The Delhi Durbar Necklace](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-0513-01-jubilee05.jpg?resize=1200%2C1642&ssl=1)
Here’s a closer look at the necklace, which combines platinum and gorgeous diamonds with gems from the Cambridge emerald collection, which comes from Queen Mary’s mother’s family. The piece has two removable negligee pendants: a polished emerald cabochon and a marquise-cut diamond, which is one of the Cullinans (the Cullinan VII, specifically).
![Mary of Teck (1867 – 1953), queen consort to George V, Photo taken in 1934](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-0525-delhidurbar07.png?resize=800%2C1025&ssl=1)
Queen Mary wore the necklace with both the Delhi Durbar Tiara and the emerald setting of the Vladimir Tiara. In this portrait, you’ll note that she removed the pendants from the Delhi Durbar Necklace so that she could layer it with additional diamond necklaces.
![Portrait of the Queen by Dorothy Wilding, 1956](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-0513-01-jubilee14.jpg?resize=1200%2C1617&ssl=1)
The Queen inherited the necklace from her grandmother in 1953, and it’s been a major part of her gala jewelry collection ever since. Here, she wears the necklace with the Vladimir Tiara in a portrait taken by the great Dorothy Wilding in 1956. (Both this portrait and the necklace will be displayed in this year’s summer exhibition at Buckingham Palace!)
![Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at a state banquet in Bangkok, where she dined with Thailand's King Bhumibol, October 1996](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-0525-delhidurbar10.png?resize=1200%2C1783&ssl=1)
Here, the Queen wears the Delhi Durbar Necklace and the Vladimir Tiara during a state visit to Thailand in 1996.
![Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she attends a dinner at the Corinthia Palace Hotel in Attard during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on November 27, 2015](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-0525-delhidurbar12.png?resize=1200%2C1440&ssl=1)
And here, she wears the same combination of jewels for the banquet at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta in 2015. Though the necklace was made to coordinate with the Delhi Durbar Tiara, the Queen has never worn them together, even after she inherited the tiara from her mother in 2002. (The tiara is now on long-term loan to the Duchess of Cornwall.)
![Caroline de Guitaut, Curator of Royal Collections, holds the Cullinan III and IV Broach and the Cullinan VII Delhi Durbar Necklace and Cullinan Pendant at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace on May 15, 2012](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecourtjeweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-0525-delhidurbar03.png?resize=1200%2C1671&ssl=1)
The necklace has often been included in royal exhibitions, including the spectacular “Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration” exhibit at Buckingham Palace in the summer of 2012. Here, curator Caroline de Guitaut shows off the necklace and the Cullinan III & IV Brooch during the exhibition’s press preview. As I mentioned above, the necklace is going to be displayed again this summer at Buckingham Palace, so lucky royal jewel visitors in London will be able to see it up close and in person!
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