I am still feeling very excited by Bryce's find. It is amazing!

I looked for modern photos of QEII wearing the central portion of the cockade, but they are of little use as too much light is being reflected to see what the inner section looks like.




The more I look at the photos of Queen Mary and Queen Alexandra the more convinced I am that Queen Mary was wearing the inner section of the central element of the cockade brooch. For that to be so however the outer section needs to be detachable. I cannot see why it couldn't be. We know that Queen Alexandra had changes made and, if the outer round elements and the spikes were a detachable frame it would make the jewel more versatile.

A not very good comparison. Apologies but I had a busy day and have not had time to try to resize images