We recently learned that the President of France will be making a state visit to the United Kingdom at the end of May. Few details about the visit, including the precise date, have been made public, but we can expect that the program will include official welcome ceremonies and a state banquet. With that in mind, I’ve got a survey today of some of the French-made jewels in the royal vaults, should Queen Camilla and Princess Catherine need any suggestions for pieces to wear!
One of the French gifts in Britain’s royal jewelry collection is this eye-catching rosette brooch made of red coral with diamond accents. The piece, made in the 1950s by Cartier, was given to Queen Elizabeth II by the Order of the Liberation to mark the 50th anniversary of a pair of landmark speeches, one by Churchill and one by de Gaulle, delivered in London during World War II.
The late Queen only wore the rose brooch on rare occasions, usually at events related to France. It’s been more than a decade since we’ve seen this jewel appear in person, and I’d love to see Queen Camilla wear the brooch for President Macron’s arrival in Britain this month.
Because King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were such good customers of Cartier’s London showroom, the royal jewelry vaults are teeming with many more Cartier pieces that could be deployed as a gesture of national goodwill during the upcoming state visit.
We’ve seen many royal Cartier pieces worn regularly, but others are more rarely spotted. Among these is a small diamond rose clip brooch, worn by Queen Elizabeth II in public, I believe, just once: during Royal Ascot in June 2016. Wouldn’t this look lovely on the Princess of Wales to welcome the French presidential couple to Britain?
Though a handful of French state dinners in Britain have been black-tie affairs, notably the 2004 state dinner at Windsor Castle, as a general rule the galas have been full state banquets where tiaras are worn by the royal women. When Camilla is considering which tiara she might wear for the dinner, perhaps she’ll reach for an old favorite: the Greville Tiara.
The imposing diamond tiara, which was bequeathed to the Queen Mother by Dame Margaret Greville, is another jewelry piece made in France. The original tiara was created by Boucheron in 1921, using elements from a dismantled diamond tiara that had been made for Mrs. Greville by the same firm two decades earlier. In 1953, the Queen Mother commissioned Cartier to make alterations to the piece, adding additional height to the tiara by reconfiguring some of the diamonds from the top line of the piece. The Boucheron-Cartier combination is an unusual one, and would be a particularly interesting nod to French jewelry history.
The Greville Emerald Kokoshnik
And what about a tiara for Catherine? The Princess of Wales’s royal life officially started with a Cartier tiara, but I’d like to see her try out something new for the banquet. And what could be better than another tiara from the Greville bequest?
The Greville Emerald Kokoshnik, which gained global attention when Princess Eugenie wore it as a bridal tiara in 2018, is also a French-made jewel. It was produced by Boucheron in Paris in either 1919 or 1921, depending on whom you ask, and features a stunning cabochon emerald as its centerpiece. Kate likes emeralds, and this would be a showstopper moment for her.
If Kate is searching for a pair of earrings to coordinate with the emerald kokoshnik, she need look no further than Mrs. Greville’s diamond and emerald drop earrings. The earrings were treasured for many years by the Queen Mother and worn on a few occasions by Queen Elizabeth II, who paired them with the Vladimir Tiara and a striking emerald and diamond necklace, perhaps another Greville inheritance, for her final tiara appearance at the Diplomatic Reception in 2019.
Like the emerald kokoshnik, the emerald earrings were made by Boucheron in Paris. Per Vincent Meylan, Dame Margaret ordered them from the firm in 1923. And Catherine wouldn’t need to worry about stepping on any toes by reaching for the earrings. Because Queen Camilla does not have pierced ears, the Greville earrings (and so many other earrings from the royal vaults) are free for Kate to use without reservation.
If Queen Camilla wanted to debut an interesting emerald jewel with a French connection at this month’s state banquet, perhaps she might consider dusting off this nineteenth-century diamond and emerald necklace. In 1965, it was gifted to the Queen by a pair of sisters, Eva and Catherine Godman. They had inherited the necklace from their father, Frederick Godman, a British scientist and a trustee of the British Museum.
The Godmans believed that the necklace, bought by Frederick during a trip to Bavaria in the 1890s, was connected to Empress Joséphine of France, possibly through her Leuchtenberg descendants. The palace reportedly did some digging on the provenance of the piece and failed to discover any concrete links to Joséphine or the Leuchtenbergs, but the Queen decided to accept the necklace anyway. She wore it on occasionally, usually for gala events linked to France. I don’t believe we’ve seen it in public since the French state visit in November 2004.
If either Camilla or Kate want to do a little flag-dressing with their jewelry for the banquet, perhaps mixing sapphires, diamonds, and rubies, there’s another necklace in the vaults that could fit the bill. Mrs. Greville’s bequest to the Queen Mother also included an unusual diamond and ruby necklace with a floral motif, made in Paris by Boucheron around 1910. Elizabeth passed the necklace on to her elder daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, as a wedding present in 1947.
We’ve already seen Catherine wear the ruby necklace for a gala moment. In 2017, during the Spanish state visit, she borrowed it for the state banquet, pairing it with Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara and Princess Diana’s Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings. Might she consider wearing it again this month?
There’s another piece of French jewelry from the Greville Bequest that I’d very much like to see Queen Camilla bring out of the vaults, and perhaps the French state visit would be the perfect opportunity. The collection includes an enormous diamond ribbon brooch, made by Boucheron in 1900. She brought an existing tiara from her jewelry box to the Boucheron atelier that year and asked them to dismantle it, making a new tiara and a diamond brooch in the shape of a knot or a bow.
The Queen Mother wore the bow brooch on occasion, but it’s a difficult piece to wear. Sir Hugh Roberts has described it as “large and lively” but also of “exceptional size.” And who better to carry off such a grand piece than Queen Camilla? She’s proven herself to be up to the task of wearing some of the largest pieces in the royal vaults, and I’d love to see her take this brooch out for a spin. Wouldn’t President Macron be impressed?
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