Queen Elizabeth’s most spectacular jewellery

Queen Elizabeth II had one of the most exceptional – and historically fascinating – jewellery collections in the world.

From record-breaking diamonds to rubies, emeralds and sapphires that the wealthiest gemstone collector could only dream of owning, the royal vault beneath Buckingham Palace is brimming with practically priceless jewels. More astounding than their collective value are the tales they tell: stories of being smuggled out of Tsarist Russia, undergoing radical transformations at the hands of jewel-loving Queen Mary or being gifted as sentimental keepsakes by the late Duke of Edinburgh.

And then there are the Crown Jewels. Alongside the Queen’s personal collection, the Jewel House at the 900-year-old Tower of London boasts 142 pieces of sacred and ceremonial regalia, bestrewn with 23,578 polished gemstones, that carry the collective history of Britain’s monarchy since the 17th century. 

Created in 1874 by Russian court jeweller Bolin for the ‘grandest of all duchesses’, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the story behind this tiara is worthy of a Bond film. The exiled Duchess was one of the last Romanovs to escape revolutionary Russia; she hid in Caucasus before escaping to Venice, leaving behind her most precious jewels. She revealed their whereabouts to British antiques dealer Bertie Stopford, who reportedly snuck back into the Vladimir Palace disguised as a workman to retrieve 244 pieces of jewellery, which he smuggled back to Europe.

After the Grand Duchess’s death, her daughter sold the tiara to Queen Mary, who paid £28,000 for it in 1921. Queen Mary was a jewellery obsessive, who often reworked her precious pieces. She commissioned crown jeweller Garrard to create 15 cabochon emerald drops to sit between the tiara’s diamond loops, which she would interchange with the original 15 pearls. On Queen Mary’s death, the tiara was inherited by her granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II, who wore it for important state occasions, switching the pearls and emeralds as the occasion required.

Aside from its film-worthy backstory, the Grand Duchess Vladimir stands out for the incredible sense of splendour achieved by its relatively simple design. One of the larger tiaras worn by Her Majesty, its versatility only increases its appeal. Add in the fact that only three women have ever worn it publicly: the Grand Duchess, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth II, it’s no wonder that the Queen prized it from the earliest days of her reign.

Made by Garrard, the diamond-set tiara was commissioned in 1888 to celebrate the silver wedding anniversary of the Princess of Wales, later Queen Alexandra. It was designed in the style of a kokoshnik, a traditional Russian headdress, and was said to be inspired by a tiara owned by the Princess’s sister, Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia. After Queen Alexandra’s death, it was passed to Queen Mary, who bequeathed it to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

This tiara is often mistaken for the Queen Mary Diamond Fringe tiara (see below), but it’s a much larger, statelier affair, with a long, upright fringe of diamonds. Queen Alexandra was clearly delighted with the design; she wore it to the wedding of her son, King George V, in 1893. Likewise, the Queen wore it for many important moments during her reign, including a visit to the Vatican and numerous state visits and balls. Another dazzlingly simple design, it was timeless enough to pair with any number of the Queen’s favourite jewels.

Another Garrard creation, this tiara was created in 1919 for Queen Mary – for whom one kokoshnik-style tiara was clearly not enough. Inspired by the tiara she’d inherited from her mother-in-law, Mary had another one made, using diamonds taken from a transformable tiara-necklace she’d been given by Queen Victoria as a wedding present in 1893. The Garrard design was more pared-back than Queen Alexandra’s original, featuring 47 neat diamond-set bars separated by smaller diamond spikes.

In 1936, Queen Mary passed the tiara on to her daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), who lent it to her daughter when she married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten on 20 November 1947. Famously, the tiara’s frame snapped as the veil was being secured on the bride’s head; it had to be escorted via police escort to the Garrard workshop to be repaired. The Queen Mother later lent the tiara to Princess Anne for her wedding in 1973. When the Queen Mother died in 2002, it was inherited by the Queen.

The fact that this tiara was the Queen’s “something borrowed” on her wedding day cements its place in history; the drama of it snapping and its last-minute repair only increases its renown. While the Queen didn’t wear it regularly throughout her reign, in 2020 it entered the limelight once again, when she lent it to her granddaughter Princess Beatrice for her socially distanced wedding. Worn with a dress originally made for the Queen by couturier Norman Hartnell, the tiara was a pared-back yet perfect accessory for a pared-back yet perfect modern wedding.

The State Diadem was created for King George IV by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell in 1820, in preparation for his coronation the following year. The Crown paid a little over £8,000 for the diadem, which included a hire fee of £800 for the stones, as was customary for coronations. However, historians believe that the diamonds were never removed from the crown; instead, the King paid for them using other stones from the royal collection.

The crown was worn by Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV, and all subsequent queens and consorts, and has been altered slightly to fit each one. It was passed on to Queen Elizabeth II when she ascended to the throne in 1952; she wore it to her first State Opening of Parliament, and continued to wear it to official state occasions.

The crown is embellished with 1,333 diamonds, set in ornate floral flourishes to represent the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland and the shamrock of Ireland. Finished with two rows of pearls, at its centre lies a four-carat yellow diamond. Its finely wrought details reflect the increasing skills of goldsmiths and diamond-setters as gem-setting technology advanced in the 19th century.

The Queen’s gold, ruby and diamond scarab brooch was designed by British jeweller Andrew Grima; it was a gift from Prince Philip in 1966, who awarded Grima the Duke of Edinburgh Prize for Elegant Design that same year. It appears to have been one of the Queen’s favourite brooches; she wore it regularly for more than half a century, for daytime and evening events, Christmas Day broadcasts, and in a portrait released to mark her platinum anniversary in 2017. Notably, she wore the brooch for her first public solo appearance following Prince Philip’s death in 2021.

Andrew Grima was one of the most celebrated jewellers of the 1960s, renowned for his avant-garde, abstract designs and use of unusual gemstones. His pieces were worn by celebrities, socialites and royalty alike. The brooch stands out from others in the Queen’s collection for its bold colours and organic, irregular form. The fact that the Queen chose this gift from her husband when appearing without him for the first time cements its status as one of her most meaningful pieces of jewellery.

The name “Granny’s Chips” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to what are two of the largest and most historically important diamonds in the Queen’s collection. The brooch comprises a 94.4-carat pear-shaped diamond hanging from a 63.6-carat square diamond. The stones, known as Cullinan III and Cullinan IV, are the third and fourth-largest polished diamonds hewn from the historic 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever mined. 

The mammoth rough diamond was unearthed in South Africa’s Cullinan mine in 1905 and two years later was presented to King Edward VII as a birthday present and signifier of South Africa’s loyalty to the monarch. The King declared it would be kept and preserved as an heirloom of the Crown, and instructed the Asscher Diamond Company in Amsterdam to cut and polish it into nine principal stones; the two largest of which adorn the Sovereign’s Sceptre and the Imperial State Crown, both part of the Crown Jewels.

The Cullinan III and IV were given to Queen Mary, who was renowned for playing around with her diamonds, and had them set in various guises, including in this brooch. When she died, the Queen inherited the brooch; hence the term “Granny’s Chips”. Her Majesty also owned the other five principal Cullinan stones.

The brooch is said to be the most expensive piece of jewellery the Queen owned – although given its provenance, in reality it’s priceless. From the tale that the Cullinan mine manager originally threw the rock out of his window because he couldn’t believe it could be a real diamond, to the subterfuge around the transportation of the rough stone, and the fact that the knife broke when the cutters first tried to strike it; the anecdotes associated with the Cullinan Diamond cement its place in history. Not only was the diamond unparalleled in terms of size, it was remarkably pure, with an extraordinary blue-white colour. A brooch featuring two of these huge historic diamonds really is fit only for royalty.

One of the largest brooches in the royal collection, the Richmond brooch was made by Hunt & Roskell for Queen Mary, as a wedding gift from the town of Richmond in 1893. Queen Mary grew up between Kensington Palace and White Lodge in Richmond Park, so it was immediately a special piece of jewellery for her; she wore it during her honeymoon.

Like many of her jewels, the brooch is convertible: it is set with a detachable pear-shaped pearl drop. Queen Mary wore it as a brooch, a pendant and a stomacher; usually with a whole vault’s worth of other jewellery, as was her style. When Queen Mary died in 1953, the brooch was bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth II.

Thanks to its size and ornate diamond-set curves, the brooch is at once delicate yet striking. The Queen first wore it publicly in 1954, and wore it for more than one Festival of Remembrance, but its most notable appearances have been for two very personal family occasions. In 2018, she wore it to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and in 2021 she chose it for the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, following the tradition of pearl and diamond “mourning jewellery”.

This chrysanthemum-inspired sapphire and diamond design was given to then-Princess Elizabeth in 1946, a year before she wed, when she launched an oil tanker called The British Princess. Despite receiving countless bejewelled wedding gifts, it was this brooch she chose to wear in a series of photographs taken at Broadlands House in Hampshire, where the Royal couple spent their honeymoon. 

This brooch’s importance lay in its sentimental value to the Queen. She wore it for significant portraits throughout her reign, including for a family portrait with Prince Philip, Prince Charles and a baby Princess Anne in 1950. Most touchingly, the Queen reached for the brooch once again when she and her husband returned to Broadlands House to recreate those honeymoon portraits for their 60th wedding anniversary in 2007. In 2020, she wore it in a portrait taken to mark their 73rd wedding anniversary – the last the couple would celebrate together. 

This dazzling necklace was made in 1858 for Queen Victoria, who the previous year had been forced to return several pieces of jewellery she’d inherited from her grandmother, Queen Charlotte, to the Royal Family of Hanover. Among the jewels she handed over was a diamond rivière necklace. So the Queen commissioned Garrard to create a replacement, using diamonds from two of her own Garter badges and a sword hilt. 

At the same time, she had the necklace set with the 22.48-carat pear-shaped Lahore Diamond. Until 1849, the diamond had been part of the Lahore Treasury in the Punjab region of Pakistan, but when Queen Victoria took ownership of it, she set it alongside the 361-carat Timur Ruby, a cabochon spinel previously owned by Maharajas, in the Timur Ruby necklace. She had that necklace altered again, however, when she decided the Lahore Diamond would be the perfect finishing touch to her new diamond rivière.

One of the few major pieces of jewellery that Queen Victoria wore during her widowhood, its name comes from the fact that it has been worn at every coronation since 1902.

Aside from the impressive carat weight and the historic provenance of the Lahore Diamond, this necklace is unique in that it has been worn at coronations by every Queen and Queen Consort since Queen Victoria. Not only did Queen Elizabeth II wear it at her own Coronation, she also chose it for her Diamond Jubilee portrait, following in the footsteps of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria; a moment of synergy for the only two British monarchs to have reigned for over 60 years.

A mainstay of her official wardrobe, the Queen was rarely seen without at least one strand of pearls around her neck. More often than not, she wore a three-strand pearl necklace: she was said to own at least three versions of the same style, which she wore on rotation. One of the necklaces was a gift from her grandfather, George V, for his Silver Jubilee in 1935, when Her Majesty was nine.

Elsewhere in her collection, the Queen had a strand of pearls that belonged to Queen Anne and another that belonged to Queen Caroline. Her Majesty was given her first pearl necklace by her father when she was three years old; it contained six pearls, and he added two more for each birthday.

Her Majesty wore her pearls for almost any occasion: from her wedding day to Royal Ascot, official engagements and in important portraits. She wore a three-strand pearl necklace to Prince Philip’s funeral, in keeping with royal mourning jewellery tradition, in which pearls are thought to represent tears.

Look at any depiction or impersonation of the Queen and it’s almost certain that she’ll be wearing a three-strand pearl necklace. It was the Queen’s most recognisable piece of jewellery – a signature style, like her colourful outfits and top-handle handbags. What’s more, unlike the other pieces of jewellery on this list, a pearl necklace is relatable: a style that everybody can echo.

When Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten decided to propose to Princess Elizabeth in 1946, his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, gave him one of her diamond tiaras. He took it to London jeweller Philip Antrobus Ltd, who dismantled it, using some of the diamonds for the engagement ring. The artistic Prince Philip is said to have been involved in the ring’s design; it features a three-carat round brilliant-cut diamond set in platinum, flanked by smaller pavé-set diamonds. The Queen wore it alongside her wedding band made of Welsh gold, a royal tradition.

As the piece of jewellery that Her Majesty wore every day, the ring was perhaps the most sentimental item in the Queen’s collection. The timeless design has not dated since the day it was created; a mark of the Duke of Edinburgh’s exceptional eye for design. The personal significance of the Queen’s engagement ring only increased after the passing of her husband in 2021.

Princess Alice of Battenberg gave her son an entire tiara’s worth of diamonds, and he put them to good use. Alongside the Queen’s engagement ring, he commissioned Philip Antrobus Ltd to create an Art Deco-style platinum and diamond bracelet, which he gave to his fiancée before their wedding day. The Princess was delighted with the gift; she wore the bracelet on her wedding day, and chose it for significant ceremonial occasions throughout her reign. In recent years the bracelet has also been worn by the Duchess of Cambridge.

Any personal gift from Prince Philip ranked highly among the Queen’s most prized jewels, and this bracelet combines sentimental significance with a timeless design. The fact that it was commissioned specifically for the Queen set it apart from other, inherited, jewellery. The Queen’s willingness to lend such a special piece to the Duchess of Cambridge suggests that this piece might one day end up in the collection of the future Queen Catherine.

English monarchs have worn the Imperial State Crown since the 15th century, when Henry V first wore a closed crown, its gold arches representing sovereignty. The Imperial State Crown is a monarch’s “working” crown, worn at the end of the coronation ceremony and at formal occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament (kings and queens are literally crowned with the sacred St Edward’s Crown, which is only worn for that one moment during their reign). 

Roughly 10 versions of the Imperial State Crown have been created since the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The current version was made by Garrard in 1937 for the coronation of King George VI, replacing the crown made for Queen Victoria.

The Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross is another magnificent component of the royal coronation regalia. It was commissioned for the coronation of Charles II in 1661 and has been part of every coronation ceremony since. Embellished with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, spinels and amethysts, the sceptre represents a monarch’s temporal power, and is one of two sceptres presented to a new king or queen during their investiture (the other is topped with a dove).

In 1910, Garrard redesigned the sceptre to accommodate the 530-carat Cullinan I, or “Star of Africa”, the largest stone cut from the Cullinan Diamond.  

The Imperial State Crown is embellished with 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls and four rubies. Among these gems are some of the most historically important stones within the Crown Jewels. The front is set with the Black Prince’s Ruby and the Cullinan II, the second largest polished diamond cut from Cullinan Diamond, while the back is set with the 104-carat Stuart Sapphire. 

The Cullinan I set atop the Sovereign’s Sceptre remains the world’s largest colourless cut diamond. But even these priceless gemstones are overshadowed by the jewels’ history and significance. As symbols of the pomp, grandeur and ceremony of British monarchy, they are two of the most important items within the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.