The bejeweled springtime splendor of Royal Ascot continued on Wednesday with another fabulous heirloom brooch debut from Queen Camilla, plus some gorgeous royal pearls on the rest of the royal ladies.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla were joined by another impressive gathering of Windsors at the races today. The Prince of Wales was in attendance, though sadly his Princess had to cancel at the last minute because of her continued need for rest. Also on hand were the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and Daniel and Lady Sarah Chatto.
The King’s tie pin choice for the second day of the race meeting was a playful one: a little gem-set Union Jack, worn on a pink patterned tie.
But it was Queen Camilla, in bright kelly green, who really stole the jewelry spotlight on Wednesday. With her diamond floral earrings, she wore the Cambridge Emerald Cluster Brooch, a grand diamond and emerald jewel set with gems that have been cherished by Charles’s royal ancestors for more than 200 years.
The brooch is set with two of the Cambridge emeralds, which were famously won in a state-sponsored charity lottery in Frankfurt by Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, who was a daughter-in-law of King George III. The emeralds were later passed down to her second daughter, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck. Here, the Duchess wears several of the gems set in earrings, a necklace, and an elaborate stomacher. If you look closely at the stomacher, you’ll spot the diamond and emerald cluster and emerald drop that are now worn together as the smaller, but still impressive, brooch.
After the death of the Duchess of Teck, the emeralds were inherited by her second son, Prince Francis. He infamously bequeathed the jewels to his married mistress, the Countess of Kilmorey, when he died in 1910. Horrified by her brother’s indiscretion, Queen Mary reached out to Lady Kilmorey and offered to buy back the family jewels. The two settled on a price of £10,000, and the emeralds have been back in royal hands ever since.
Queen Mary loved to experiment with her jewels, regularly renovating pieces to make them more modern. Mary commissioned a spectacular new suite of jewelry ahead of the Delhi Durbar in 1911, and she used her mother’s emeralds as part of the parure. But while many pieces were dismantled and reworked in the process, the cluster and drop from the original stomacher were retained in their original forms and linked together to form a brooch.
In this portrait, taken around 1914, the Cambridge Emerald Cluster Brooch can be seen in this form, worn pinned to Mary’s bodice. She wears the brooch with the Delhi Durbar Earrings and the Ladies of India Necklace, which was later reworked as an Art Deco-style choker necklace, most recently worn by the present Princess of Wales.
From the early 1950s until three years ago, the brooch was in the jewelry box of Queen Mary’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. She liked to wear the brooch without its pendant drop, but she also occasionally wore the complete piece, as seen here in a photograph from the autumn of 2005. King Charles III inherited the brooch in 2022, and this outing at Royal Ascot is Camilla’s first public appearance in the jewel.
Camilla also snuck one more piece of royal heirloom jewelry into her ensemble: a Cartier diamond and emerald bracelet that belonged to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The Art Deco bracelet is part of a set of five, three of which can be worn together on a tiara frame, and Camilla has now been spotted in all of the different colorful options (diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds).
The Prince of Wales attended the races on his own after Princess Catherine’s late cancelation, presenting the trophy for the Prince of Wales Stakes and mingling with his friends and in-laws in the Royal Box. For the occasion, he wore his usual tie pin, which I believe features the royal cypher of his great-grandfather, King George VI.
The Princess Royal wore classic jewels from her collection for the second day of the race meeting: her Andrew Grima pearl, diamond, and gold earrings, paired with her three-row seed pearl choker and a bejeweled bird brooch.
And here’s a look at the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh in the Royal Enclosure ahead of the start of the races on Wednesday, with Sophie wearing a bright, colorful floral dress with a pink hat.
Edward wore another royal cypher tie pin. I think this is also the cypher of George VI, and the tie pin appears to be a very close match to the one worn by William. (You all know that I have a pet theory that the late Queen Mother gave these as gifts to her grandsons and great-grandsons.)
And here’s a closer look at the jewelry that Sophie chose for the occasion, including a favorite pair of earrings set with multicolored gems and a diamond bracelet from Chopard.
As always, the Duchess of Gloucester knocked it out of the park where jewelry was concerned. She wore lovely diamond and pearl drop earrings with a three-row pearl necklace and a stunning gold and gemstone bracelet. The necklace features decorative clasps/spacers, which I think might be set with diamonds and rubies.
And there was another big royal jewelry moment in the carriage procession, too! Lady Sarah Chatto was stunning in pearls, including the diamond and pearl earrings that belonged to her mother, Princess Margaret. Sarah memorably wore the earrings on her wedding day in 1994. At Ascot on Wednesday, Sarah finished off her jewelry look with her classic five-row pearl necklace.
It’s also worth noting the identity of Daniel and Lady Sarah’s companions in the carriage: the married novelists Robert Harris (Conclave) and Gill Hornby (Miss Austen). There have been numerous literary figures at Ascot this year, and the Queen’s Reading Room has an installation at the racecourse during this year’s race meeting. Yesterday, the novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz (Foyle’s War) was in the carriage procession with his wife, Jill Green.
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