In 2014 the jewellery world was stunned when photographs appeared of Queen Elizabeth II wearing a bar brooch made from large diamonds.
QEII photographed for the first time wearing the brooch at a Commonwealth reception in March 2014.
At the time many of us saw only 3 large diamonds in the brooch.
In May 2014 I found an item on 5 large diamonds given to QEII when she opened the Princess Elizabeth Graving Dock in East London, South Africa. Previously the details of these diamonds had not circulated on jewellery sites.
As I did not have a photo account at the time, I gave the details to board members of the Royal Jewels of the World Message board and asked if someone would post a clipping.
See https://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/msg/archive/1399783208.html
Nellie kindly did so. See https://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/msg/archive/1399789839.html
The diamonds as presented.
Then, Franck recognised that the diamonds were used in the bar brooch
See https://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/msg/archive/1399799694.html
Despite some initial reluctance to accept Franck's insight, when the Queen wore the brooch on later occasions, photographic evidence showed that the brooch contained 5 large diamonds including the 2 moon shaped diamonds and everyone accepted that the brooch was made with the diamonds received in 1947.
After that a number of sites posted the information giving the impression that the site owner had undertaken original independent research and discovered the origin.
Franck has made another important discovery: that the diamonds were set as a bar brooch by 1951 at the latest.. As far as I know Franck did not post that on the Royal Jewels of the World Message board; he posted it on Her Majesty's Jewel Vault Readers will need to scroll down to see Franck's link to a Trove site. For those who don't want to scroll here is the link Franck used. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205660888?searchTerm=queen%20elizabeth%20brooches&searchLimits=
Since then I have found evidence that the brooch was set well before that.
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