An intriguing idea Thomas! Such a scenario would account for 5 rows of pearls. Each Princess would have been given part of an historic jewel on an historic occasion, something which would have appealed to Queen Mary's sense of continuity.

I have never been convinced that the pearls Queen Mary wore to the Devonshire House Ball in 1897 were the ones given to her by George V for their wedding, as that set of pearls had larger pearls in the centre of each row; the ones in the press sketch and the only known photo of the pearls in a photo of the wedding gifts does not have larger pearls in the centre.





Queen Mary dressed for Devonshire House Ball