Queen Camilla has continued her streak of recent months by continuing to debut heirloom jewels from the massive Royal Vault. Yesterday, Queen Camilla wore Queen Mary’s magnificent Carved Emerald Brooch at Royal Ascot, which was gift from the ‘Ladies of India’ during the famed Delhi Durbar.
When King George V and Queen Mary arrived in India for the famed Delhi Durbar in late 1911, a deputation of Indian ladies, headed by the Maharani Patiala, arrived bearing an Emerald and Diamond Necklace and this spectacular Emerald Brooch set with a historic carved emerald in bordered by diamonds.
Queen Mary first wore her new Emerald Brooch and Necklace with the Delhi Durbar Tiara for the main Ceremony of the Delhi Durbar held at the historic Red Fort in Delhi. Queen Mary wrote to the ‘Ladies of India’
“The jewel you have given me will ever be very precious in my eyes and whenever I wear it, though thousands of miles of land and sea separate us, my thoughts will fly to the homes of India, and create again and again this happy meeting and recall the tender love your hearts have yielded me. Your jewel shall pass to future generations as an imperial heirloom, and always stand as a token, of the first meeting of an English Queen with the ladies of India.”
Queen Mary wore the Carved Emerald Brooch on numerous occasion in the following decades, at first paired with the Delhi Durbar Tiara and the Delhi Durbar Parure, made with the Cambridge Emeralds, and later paired with the Vladimir Tiara set with emeralds.
The necklace given by the Ladies of India was reset into an Art Deco Emerald Choker by Garrard in 1921, and made a splendid pairing int eh 1930s, when Queen Mary set the Carved Emerald Brooch into her Sapphire Bandeau.
On her death in 1953, Queen Mary left the Carved Emerald Brooch to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, along with the bulk of her massive jewellery collection but it remained publicly unworn until the 2000s, when it was worn for a handful of public audiences and receptions.
In 2013, there were two prominent appearances of Queen Mary’s Carved Emerald Brooch , when it was worn for Church at Sandringham ahead of appearing at the Royal Windsor Horse Show a few months later.
After the Queen’s passing in 2022, Queen Mary’s Carved Emerald Brooch was among the jewels inherited by the new King Charles III and debuted by Queen Camilla at Day Three of Royal Ascot in 2024. Let’s hope this striking heirloom is repeated again soon!
Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara
