Happy Birthday to the Princess of Wales, who turns 43 today! The future Queen has worn a plethora of Royal Heirlooms over the years, which we covered in our series on the Jewels of the Princess of Wales, and today we are featuring the late Queen’s Bahrain Pearl Earrings!

When Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in 1947, the Princess received seven large pearls from the Hakim of Bahrain, two of which were used to create a spectacular pair of Earrings suspending the pearls from large and small round diamonds and three baguette diamonds.

Princess Elizabeth wore the Bahrain Pearl Earrings on a couple of occasions during her Tour of Canada in 1951, most notably in Winnipeg and Charlottetown, as well as in Washington, D.C and for her Farewell Radio Broadcast from Government House in St. John’s.

A few months later, the now Queen wore the Bahrain Pearl Earrings with the George IV State Diadem and the Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace for her iconic Dorothy Wilding Portraits, which featured on banknotes, coins and stamps for decades.

One of the last notable appearances of the Bahrain Pearl Earrings  came on the Queen at the Bertram Mills Christmas Circus in 1955, after which they were unworn for decades.

Throughout the years, the Queen frequently loaned the Bahrain Pearl Earrings to family members, first to the Princess of Wales for the Dutch State Visit to Britain in 1982, when they were paired with the Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara and the Queen’s Japanese Pearl Choker.

In 2014, the Bahrain Pearl Earrings were loaned to the Countess of Wessex for a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

After a gap of a few decades, the Queen notably wore the Bahrain Pearl Earrings at the Festival of Remembrance in 2015.

The following year, the Bahrain Pearl Earrings were given to the then Duchess of Cambridge, who wore them to the Remembrance Sunday Service in 2016 and 2019, Royal Ascot in 2017, Church at Balmoral in 2018, and Trooping the Colour 2019.

An important appearance came in 2021, when the Duchess wore the Pearl Earrings with the Queen’s Japanese Pearl Choker for the Funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle in 2021.

After an appearance at the Platinum Jubilee Service at St Paul’s Cathedral, the Princess of Wales notably wore the Bahrain Pearl Earrings with the Queen’s Japanese Pearl Choker for the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in 2022.

The Princess of Wales has continued to wear the Bahrain Pearl Earrings in recent appearances, like for the Governors General and Prime Ministers Lunch at Buckingham Palace, and like the Queen, for the Royal Festival of Remembrance in 2022 and 2023, and more recently for Remembrance Sunday in 2024. There is no doubt we will continue to see the Queen’s Bahrain Pearl Earrings worn for years to come!

Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara