To most people, a 19th wedding anniversary is mere bronze. But for Queen ... trends now
When Camilla Parker Bowles married Prince Charles, 19 years ago today, the Duchess of Cornwall was given access to one of the most important and exclusive jewellery collections in the world.
The past 18 months have seen her wearing a number of the late Queen Elizabeth’s favourite pieces.
The Queen Consort received wedding presents in her own right, including some outstanding jewels from the Saudi Royal Family, and a plethora of personal pieces from her husband, many with sentimental meaning.
Some, indeed, had once belonged to her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, a mistress to Edward VII, King Charles’s great-great-grandfather - pieces which King Charles has enjoyed finding and buying for his wife since the early days of their rekindled relationship.
Debutante Camilla Shand at her coming-out party in 1965
Alice Keppel, Camilla's great-grandmother, had a long-term affair with Edward VII
Prince Charles and Camilla are pictured at a Cirencester Park polo match in July 1975
It is said that, when the young Camilla Shand first met Prince Charles through their mutual friend, Lucia Santa Cruz, that she had made a joke of about the colourful if somewhat disreputable connection between their families.
The Keppel ruby and diamond tiara, given to Mrs Keppel by the newly crowned King Edward in the early 1900s, is one of these gifts.
Similar in style to one made at the same time by Fabergé, it is made of gold and platinum and set with swirls of pavé-set diamonds elaborated by 14 oval and pear-shaped synthetic rubies.
This might sound strange - a king giving synthetics - but these 'rubies' were very fashionable at the time, having been finally perfected by Auguste Verneuil in time for the Paris World Fair in 1900. They were in high demand.
The combination of rubies and diamonds signifies eternal love, which makes the piece a particularly appropriate gift from the Prince of Wales, as he was then. The tiara has since been transformed into a necklace.
There is another Keppel family tiara in the collection, also - a magnificent diamond set-piece found locked in a safe at a London jeweller’s. Bought by Charles for Camilla, it has subsequently been transformed into a spectacular necklace and pair of earrings.
Like many an English Queen before her, Queen Camilla is partial to pearl necklaces and wears them with a variety of clasps – many of which have been bought for her by her husband.
Perhaps the most fabulous of which is the enormous 1830’s pink topaz and diamond Georgian brooch, which the Queen wears fastened as a clasp to a sumptuous five strand pearl choker, first seen together in 2008.
The enormous topaz is bordered with a halo of small old mine cut diamonds, and then surrounded with a halo of 26 large, brilliant diamonds; she originally had it as the clasp of a longer multi-strand pearl necklace. T
The brooch, and its accompanying earrings were bought at Sotheby’s in 2000 by the then Prince Charles and given to his future wife.
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