Cartier Diamonds and Heirloom Amethysts for Queen Camilla in London

We’ve had an interesting pair of jewelry appearances from Queen Camilla in London in recent days, featuring a second appearance from a spectacular pair of heirloom amethyst earrings and an outing in a favorite Cartier brooch for today’s Buckingham Palace Garden Party.

On Saturday, King Charles III and Queen Camilla headed to the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the King’s Trust. The charity, originally known as the Prince’s Trust, was founded by Charles in 1976. The organization works with young people, offering them ways to build confidence and life skills, find employment, or start businesses. The event featured musical performances by artists including Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, Craig David, Sir Rod Stewart, Rita Ora, Ronnie Wood, and Anne-Marie.

Queen Camilla wore a purple lace dress and a violet-colored cape for the celebration. With the dress and cape, she wore a diamond serpent necklace from Van Cleef & Arpels, an inheritance from her grandmother, Sonia Keppel Cubitt, and a special pair of royal amethyst and diamond earrings.

The earrings come from the suite of amethyst jewels that belonged to Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent. Camilla made her first public appearance in the suite at the end of last month during the American state visit. On that occasion, she wore both the earrings and their matching necklace. Because Camilla does not have pierced ears, many have wondered if the earrings have been converted for her use.

For the gala at the Royal Albert Hall, Camilla finished off the jewelry look with one of the Art Deco bracelets made by Cartier for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in the days when she was still Duchess of York.

Earlier today, Charles and Camilla hosted a garden party at Buckingham Palace, meeting with guests who were chosen because they have served their communities through volunteering, supporting charitable causes, and working for emergency services. The King and Queen were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester for the garden party.

With his morning suit, Charles wore an interesting tie that appears to pay tribute to Edward Lear’s beloved poem, The Owl & the Pussycat. He secured the tie with a favorite jeweled tie pin from his collection, which features a diamond knot surrounding a cabochon sapphire.

Aaron Chown offered us some good jewelry close-ups during this garden party. He also snapped this photograph of the King’s wedding and signet rings. At some point in recent years, Charles set aside the signet ring he’d worn for decades, which featured Prince of Wales feathers, and began wearing this ring, which is decorated with the coat of arms of a Greek prince.

Naturally, there’s been speculation that this ring is the same signet ring sometimes worn by his father, Prince Philip. If so, it surely has some sort of connection to the signet ring that belonged to his grandfather, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. Andrew died in Monaco in 1944, and when Philip arrived there to collect his possessions after the war’s end, the ring was one of the few effects that remained.

In his biography of Philip’s mother, Hugo Vickers writes, “Philip’s affection for his father remained strong. He had any of his suits and jackets that were wearable adapted; he used his ivory shaving brush and, from that day on, wore his signet ring.” Philip is wearing his father’s ring on his left pinky finger in the engagement portrait above from 1947. To me, the ring looks perhaps a little smaller than the one currently worn by Charles, but the quality of old photographs sometimes makes it difficult to discern details.

Queen Camilla arrived for the garden party wearing the same black-and-white coat dress she wore for the King’s congressional address in Washington in April. This time, she also wore the hat she’d paired with the same outfit to commemorate VE Day in May of last year.

For today’s garden party, Camilla again wore the lovely black pearl drop earrings she wore with the ensemble at the US Capitol, but she brought out a different brooch from the late Queen Mother’s collection: the Palm Leaf Brooch made by Cartier for Elizabeth in 1938.

The brooch was a great favorite of both the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II, and now it’s worn with increasing frequency by Queen Camilla as well. Here’s a close-up from one of Camilla’s last big appearances in the brooch, at the Commonwealth Day service back in March.

The other royal lady present at today’s garden party was the always-elegant Duchess of Gloucester. Birgitte wore an ensemble in shades of ivory and brown for today’s event, including a lovely textured coat.

She accessorized with pearls, wearing a single strand of large round pearls, also worn last week for another garden party with a different pair of pearl and diamond earrings. This time around, she matched it with a pair of classic diamond and pearl cluster earrings.