There was one more tiara coda to last week’s German state visit to Britain: a sparkling appearance at the Guildhall by the Princess Royal in diamonds, sapphires, and pearls.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, were the guests of honor at a banquet given by the Lady Mayor of London. Dame Susan Langley, at the Guildhall on Thursday. The royal family was represented at the white-tie dinner by the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.
As you may have guessed, the dress worn by Princess Anne for the dinner was an archive piece from her wardrobe. Here’s a full shot of the spangled navy blue gown and its matching bolero-style jacket, taken fourteen years ago on the night before the wedding of the present Prince and Princess of Wales in April 2011. Anne arrived at the Guildhall on Thursday wearing a furry evening jacket over the dress.
Inside, we got a good look at the jewels worn by the Princess during the speeches at the banquet. During his remarks, President Steinmeier spoke approvingly of the combination of tradition and innovation present in the City of London: “This combination is a recipe for success. Here, the past is honored but not frozen in time. And this evening demonstrates once again that tradition can evolve.”
For the dinner, Anne chose a tiara that has been in her jewelry box for more than half a century: her Diamond Festoon Tiara.
The classic, balanced diamond tiara arrived in her collection in May 1973 when she christened the World Unicorn, a tanker owned by the World-Wide Shipping Group. The Hong Kong-based company gave her the tiara as a memento of the occasion. In the portrait above, she wears it with a diamond necklace and earrings, both gifts from her parents. The picture was reprinted on the cover of the souvenir program for her wedding to her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips.
Anne often wears the tiara with those other diamond jewels as a married parure, but delightfully, she decided to switch things up for the Guildhall banquet. She wore sapphire and pearl drop earrings with a pearl choker necklace that has an elaborate diamond and sapphire clasp.
The necklace is a particularly special one. It originally belonged to Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, mother of the last Tsar and sister of Britain’s Queen Alexandra. The jewel was acquired by Queen Mary after the Revolution and passed down to Queen Elizabeth II, who gave it to Princess Anne.
There were two more special sapphires incorporated into Anne’s jewelry ensemble, too. On her left hand, she wore the sapphire and diamond engagement ring given to her by Sir Tim in 1992. And on her jacket, she wore a grand sapphire and diamond cluster brooch.
The brooch is an antique, and its design makes it a close cousin of another special British royal jewel: Prince Albert’s Brooch. Queen Victoria so treasured her sapphire wedding gift from Albert that copies of the jewel are said to have been made for their daughters. Suzy Menkes wrote in the 1980s that Queen Elizabeth II acquired one of those copies for Princess Anne. (I did a deep-dive on the complicated matter of the copies in this earlier article.)
On at least one occasion, the two brooches were worn together in the same room. For a reception celebrating Anne’s recent 50th birthday at Windsor Castle in November 2000, Elizabeth II wore Prince Albert’s Brooch, and Anne wore her copy of the jewel. Anne’s decision to wear the copy again at last week’s dinner for the German president seems, to me anyway, to be significant evidence that Anne’s brooch does also have an association with Prince Albert himself.
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