I think that most are familiar with the Grima brooch with carved rubies worn by Queen Elizabeth II.

I am taking the liberty of re-posting the extremely clear image OmerH posted recently, as it is the best image I have ever seen of the brooch. (Thank you for the image OmerH)



I think that we all know that the brooch was given to QEII by the Duke of Edinburgh.

What I had never appreciated before was that the brooch was one of the items by Andrew Grima (15 I think) which were submitted for the Duke of Edinburgh's Design Award in 1966. The significance of this is that 1966 was the first (and perhaps the only year?) in which a jeweller - Andrew Grima -- won the prize.

The brooch was featured in news items about the award to Grima -- so perhaps it was the most outstanding of the jewels.



As the news item above states, the brooch was then called the "ruby Venus brooch" and was said to be valued at 600 pounds.

There is no doubt that this brooch is QEII's Grima ruby brooch -- despite the poor quality of the image.



No doubt, if the brooch were to appear at auction tomorrow, it would fetch much, much more.

In the timeline on the Grima website, the brooch is not listed for the year of the Duke of Edinburgh's awards, but it is for 2007 where it is noted that HM wore the brooch for her Christmas message that year and that Andrew Grima died the next day. https://grimajewellery.com/timeline/ Even though we all know that HM's Christmas messages are recorded before Christmas Day, it is tempting to think that HM was paying a quiet tribute to Grima. But, perhaps I am being fanciful and it was just a co-incidence.