Today marks the 99th Anniversary of the Birth of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was born on this in 1926! The oldest and longest reigning British Monarch had one of, if not the, largest jewellery collections, and today’s piece is one of her most iconic jewels; the Delhi Durbar Necklace!
Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara | Vladimir Tiara | Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara | Belgian Sapphire Tiara | Burmese Ruby Tiara | Brazilian Aquamarine Tiara | Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara | Cambridge Emerald Parure | Coronation Necklace | Delhi Durbar Necklace | George VI Festoon Necklace | Three-Strand Pearl Necklace | The Jewels of Queen Elizabeth II
In the early part of the 19th century, Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge bought raffle tickets for a charity lottery in Frankfurt, and subsequently won a box that contained around forty magnificent cabochon round and pear-shaped emeralds of various sizes.
Setting some of the emeralds into a necklace and earrings, the Cambridge Emeralds were inherited by her younger daughter, Princess Mary Adelaide, the Duchess of Teck, the mother of Queen Mary, who also sometimes put some of the emeralds in her Stomacher. She left them to her son Prince Francis of Teck, who in turn left them to his mistress, the Countess of Kilmorey, in 1910, which horrified his sister, who paid £10,000 to acquire the Cambridge Emeralds, leaving just one brooch with the Countess.
Queen Mary used the Cambridge Emeralds in a new Parure she had commissioned for the Delhi Durbar of 1911, consisting of a necklace, earrings, stomacher, brooches, and bracelet, also putting some of the pear-shaped Emeralds on top of her Delhi Durbar Tiara. The Delhi Durbar Necklace is composed of nine of the Cambridge Emeralds alongside the Cullinan VII Diamond, and six large diamonds.
Queen Mary wore the Cambridge Emerald Parure on numerous occasions and portraits, usually layering the Delhi Durbar Necklace with her Art Deco Emerald Choker.
A few years later, Queen Mary adapted the Vladimir Tiara to be worn with the Cambridge Emeralds, which she also later put on top of her Diamond Bandeau, and was often pictured wearing the full Delhi Durbar parure on numerous occasions throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
After Queen Mary’s death in 1953, the Cambridge Emeralds were inherited by the Queen, and whenever she wore the emerald-version of the Vladimir Tiara, it was almost always paired with the Delhi Durbar Necklace. After being debuted on the Commonwealth Tour in 1954, the Queen wore the Delhi Durbar Necklace on countless occasions over the next few decades.
The Queen continued to wear the striking Delhi Durbar Necklace with the emerald-version of the Vladimir Tiara and also sometimes with the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara through the 1970s and 1980s.
The Delhi Durbar Necklace continued to be worn by the late Queen Ito the final years of her reign, with some notably appearances during an Irish State Visit in 2014 and a Gala Dinner in Malta in 2015.
In recent years, the Delhi Durbar Necklace was often displayed during the summer exhibitions at Buckingham Palace, most recently at the ‘Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Accession’ Exhibit in 2022, where I saw the Jewels at Buckingham Palace on the day the Queen passed away, which was also the last day that the Necklace was publicly seen! Let’s hope it is worn again soon!
Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara | Vladimir Tiara | Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara | Belgian Sapphire Tiara | Burmese Ruby Tiara | Brazilian Aquamarine Tiara | Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara | Cambridge Emerald Parure | Coronation Necklace | Delhi Durbar Necklace | George VI Festoon Necklace | Three-Strand Pearl Necklace | The Jewels of Queen Elizabeth II
