Queen Elizabeth II Tiaras & Necklaces 1: Nov 2005-Nov 2007
 

Her Majesty wearing Queen Alexandra's Kokoshnik Tiara at a State Banquet for the President and First Lady of the United States.

I love the Kokoshnik tiara. It's so glittering! :)

The Kokoshnik Tiara was a 25th wedding anniversary gift to the then Alexandra, Princess of Wales from the Ladies of Great Britain. Alexandra requested the Kokoshnik style (Russian peasant headdress) because her sister, The Empress Marie Fedorovna had a tiara in this style.

Could someone tell me if the some of the pearls included in the Imperial State Crown are the famous Catherine de Medicis' pearls?

I think there's a story to that effect, but I don't know if there's documentation that these pearls were the same ones that Mary Stuart got from Catherine de Medici.

Four pearls in the Imperial State Crown are Catherine de Medici's pearls. When Catherine married Henri, Duke d'Orleans (future Henri II of France), she was given 7 magnificent pearls by her uncle, Clement VII. Those pearls were given to Mary, Queen of Scots when she married Catherine's eldest son Francois. Mary took these pearls back to Scotland after the death of Francois. When Mary was executed in 1587, Elizabeth I took the pearls and added them to the Crown collection. Four of those 7 pearls hang from the arches in the Imperial State Crown today.

oh my. these pearls got a long history behind them. but i once read that if a pearl is more than 100 years old, its colour would change, and lost the luster it had. so how could these pearls last for so long?(maybe my source is wrong?)

Here another pics of Her Majesty's jewels:
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/8...fd525bh.th.jpg http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/9333/19447735xs.th.jpghttp://img23.imageshack.us/img23/132...mall8dz.th.jpghttp://img23.imageshack.us/img23/614...ches2qy.th.jpg

According to the official guidebook of the crown jewels, at least two of those pearls in the Imperial State Crown date only from the 19th century. It doesn't say anything about the other two, though.

According to Leslie Field in The Queen's Jewels, pg 168:


At the apex, below the the diamond-set globe, hang four large pear-shaped pearl drops. The drops were probably among a collection of pearls presented to Catherine de Medici by her uncle, Pope Clement VII. She gave them to Mary, Queen of Scots, who married Queen Catherine's son, the Dauphin of France. After Queen Mary's execution, her magnificient collection of pearls was bought by Queen Elizabeth I for 4,000 pounds. These became part of Queen Victoria's inheritance and the four pearls have been in the crown since 1838.

Pearls do lose their luster and become rather ugly if they are not used. I remember reading a story about how in Denmarks Jewel Collection their was a pearl parure(i think that is how u spell it) that had not been worn for years and looked hidious. It could not be worn in public. So Queen Ingrid, the Queen Mother began to wear them every night to bed and they soon got their luster and beaty back. They look really nice know. Queen Margareth even said she remembered the way they looked before and when her mother slept in them. Does body warmth make the pearls look nice. What is the connection. Pearls are my favorite "gem stone". They are my birth stone too and I just think they are so beautifull.

Lahore Diamond
 

Hallo
I would like to know the history of the Lahore Diamond pendent from diamond parure of queen Victoria. I now the Diamond from the earrings comes from Koh-I-Noor armlet that Queen Victoria got 1850 from the last King of the Punjab.
Thank you very much all your answers and many greetings.

According to Leslie Field's book, "The Queen's Jewels", page 54:

"Queen Victoria left her collet necklace and earrings to the Crown in 1901. They were made in 1858 from twenty-eight collet stones that she had removed from a Garter Badge and a ceremonial sword; she wore them when Winterhalter painted her portrait in 1859. The necklace added up to 161 carats, the nine largest stones weighing between 8.25 and 11.25 carats each. The pendant stone, known as the Lahore Diamond, and the drops in the earrings come from the Timur Ruby Necklace, taken from the Treasury of Lahore and presented to Queen Victoria by the Honourable East India Company in 1851."

what tiara did the queen wear tonight

Grand Duchess Vladimir's tiara..... HM wears this tiara very often in recent years.

I really wish she could wear something else, give us admirers a chance to appreciate the beauty of her collection.

The jewels worn by Queen Elizabeth II at the banquet given for the visit of the King and Queen of Norway to the UK, October 25, 2005
aap image
HM's jewels at the banquet

The jewels worn by The Queen during the state banquet on the first day of the state visit to Malta, November 23, 2005.
This is the 1st time The Queen has worn the Indian Ruby Tiara.

The Queen's first time wearing this tiara
Polfoto

A link to Ursula's Royal-Magazin site with a fantastic closeup of The Queen's jewels from the banquet.
HM wearing the Oriental Circlet

It looks very good on her. I think it's a more attractive tiara than the Burmese ruby one.

I am still waiting to see if the Queen will wear her mother's Boucheron Honeycomb Diamond Tiara.