Regards,
Dave.
Queen Elizabeth II has been photographed wearing two amethyst floral brooches. As both share similarities, when the second brooch was spotted people assumed that the brooch had been re-set. Later, it became clear that HM has 2 very similar brooches.
Brooch 1 (2013)
Brooch 2 (2020)
The best site to read about the brooches, the similarities and differences I know of is The Queen's Jewel Vault site.
See http://queensjewelvault.blogspot.com/2012/06/amethyst-bouquet-brooch.html
I believe that these brooches may be the combs which various authors have said formed part of the Kent amethyst parure.
I have previously drawn attention to the head jewel/s worn by Victoria, Duchess of Kent to the wedding of the Princess Royal (later Empress of Germany) in 1858. https://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/msg/archive/1466843730.html
According to the press in 1858 the Duchess' head dress was
Queen Victoria commissioned a painting to commemorate the occasion and the Duchess of Kent can be seen wearing what looks like a tiara, the necklace in its shorter form and earrings.
Detail showing the Duchess
I now think that what I initially thought was a single jewel (a tiara) is likely to have been a composite ornament formed by the two brooches, worn as combs, either side of the central element.
There are numerous reports stating that the Duchess of Kent wore amethyst and diamonds as a head dress while wearing the necklace, earrings and a stomacher (which some of us think might have been formed from the 3 brooches with diamond sunray patterns).
When I looked at some of the reports more carefully about the Duchess' head dresses with amethyst, it became obvious that she did not have an amethyst tiara. This is even more obvious when other royal ladies are described as wearing a tiara or diadem. For example -
There are several reports of the Duchess of Kent being adorned with "bouquets" of amethysts and diamonds which, after I looked at some imagery, suggested to me that QEII's brooches originally belonged to the Duchess of Kent.
The major query I have is how many of these bouquets did the Duchess have?
And
The brooches worn by QEII do resemble a bouquet of flowers with foliage.
And when an image is turned sideways it is easy to see them mounted as hair combs.
Thankfully, there are some other paintings and a sketch in the Royal Collection which suggest that, at least for the head dress jewels, similar pieces were utilised. Sadly, I haven't found an image of the "bouquets" covering the Duchess' dress to the hem line, but there is one suggesting a brooch on the bodice.
Sir George Hayter's painting of the christening of Edward VII on 25 January 1842
Detail of the Duchess of Kent (and an excellent view of the Duchess of Cambridge with her pearl tiara)
Before doing the painting, Hayter did individual studies of the main people, and in the one of the Duchess it is possible to see the floral details of the jewels forming her head dress.
And the impression of the brooch on the bodice.
Unfortunately, there aren't any photographs available which might clinch the identification of the Duchess' "bouquets", but I think that it is highly likely these brooches did belong to the Duchess.
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