Queen’s Diamonds Play a Role in the Diamond Jubilee

The sparkle and splendor of royal diamonds, laced with stories of historic grandeur and family love, will go on show in Britain this summer. The diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, to be celebrated publicly this weekend with a four-day festival, is being backed up by unprecedented disclosure of royal treasures from Buckingham Palace. Multimedia Slide Show A Diamond Heritage Related Pulling Out the Stops for the Jubilee (May 29, 2012)  While cities and villages flutter with red, white and blue bunting and shop windows are decorated with objects incorporating the Union Jack, there is an easier and less uptight relationship between palace and people. In the same open spirit with which last year’s wedding of Catherine Middleton and Prince William, now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, was celebrated with ceremony but not too much pomp, the big ease has reached the vaults of monarchy. Hence the unprecedented display of royal treasures. “Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration” will be on display from June 30 to July 8 and from July 31 to Oct. 7, as part of the summer at Buckingham Palace. (www.royalcollection.org.uk) It will include some of the most iconic pieces, from the diamond diadem that started its royal life in 1821 peeping out under George IV’s swashbuckling velvet, ostrich-plumed hat and has since been worn by generations of British monarchs. It is the diadem most often seen on the current Queen’s head for royal occasions. On display, too, will be jewels worn by Queen Victoria for her diamond jubilee and less stately and more personal pieces that have been altered to suit different moments in history, changing tastes and varied personalities. For example, because of a need to conceal a scar on the neck of the elegant young Princess Alexandra, a fashion for “dog collar” necklaces began. The young Princess Elizabeth, the current Queen, showed a penchant for flowers. The brooch she had made by Cartier in 1953 was a floral tribute to its central pink diamond from South Africa. This month, “The Queen’s Diamonds,” the first authorized book about the royal jewels, has been published by Royal Collections Publications. Written by Hugh Roberts, Surveyor Emeritus of the Queen’s Works of Art, the book, with its sumptuous 348 illustrations including some double-fold pages of the jeweled tiaras, shows the rich heritage of the British royal family beginning with Queen Adelaide in the 1830s. Research notes even reveal how much the Queens Victoria, Mary, Alexandra and Elizabeth, the Queen mother, paid jewelers from Cartier or Garrard. A Garrard diamond tiara inspired by the Russian Kokoshnik headdress cost £4,400, a mighty sum in 1888. A focus on the visible wealth of the monarchy might be considered a spur to revolution in a country that is in the grip of austerity and that experienced rioting last year. But most of the treasures — like the bracelet that Prince Phillip gave to Princess Elizabeth on their marriage in 1947 — are not personal, but belong to the state. The author’s scholarly information is laced with some intriguing tales of how Queen Mary, passionate equally about jewels and about royal history, stepped in to buy back family emeralds from her brother’s mistress after his death. Only the subject of the abdication of Edward VIII and the possibility that his future wife, Wallis Simpson, was given royal jewels still seems to be a taboo. Simpson, who became the Duchess of Windsor, is not even mentioned in the exhaustive index. Inevitably, the rise of a new royal generation refreshes the image of monarchy — just as it did in 1981 when a beautiful young Diana married into the family, before the fairy tale imploded. The fact that Prince Charles’s current wife, Camilla, and Catherine, Prince William’s wife, have started to wear royal jewels, lent by Queen Elizabeth, is a symbol of the British royal family’s serenity after the storm.