FROM GC BEACHES TO ROLE IN ROYAL WEDDING
Remodelling a 100-year-old tiara for a royal wedding 20 years ago was a world away for surfboard-riding jeweller from Mudgeeraba
A GOLD Coaster had a close encounter of the royal kind when he played a key role in the wedding of the Queen’s youngest child.
It was 20 years ago this week when Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
The nuptials came six months after the couple became engaged and six years after they first met at a tennis event in 1993.
It was a highly anticipated event, having been several years since the wedding of Princess Anne to Timothy Laurence.
And a long-time Gold Coaster was able to play a role in the happy day.
When Rhys-Jones walked down the aisle, she wore a priceless antique tiara modelled by former Mudgeeraba jeweller Benjamin Tracy.
The then-27-year-old London-based goldsmith was commissioned to remodel the 100-year-old Victorian-era fleur-de-lis tiara from the Royal Family’s private jewellery collection.
Mr Tracy spoke to the Bulletin in the days before the wedding from his shop on Bond St where he worked for the crown jewellers, Asprey and Garrard.
He spoke of his background and described himself as an avid surfer who found recreating the eight-carat diamond tiara to be “fun”.
“I left it to my own imagination,” he said
“Apparently Sophie Rhys Jones was happy with it. And what I hear from the directors (the royal family) are quite happy with it.”
It took Mr Tracy two weeks to work on the tiara, a gift from the royal family to Sophie.
It was one of several royal projects he had taken part in while living in London, including the Queen’s 50th wedding anniversary tiara, rings and bracelets for Princess Margaret, jewellery for the Queen of Norway and a jewelled sceptre for an African parliament.
During the period, Mr Tracy was in demand as a jeweller and worked on several major jewellery pieces.
These included creating a three-carat marquis diamond wedding ring for Victoria Beckham upon her marriage to soccer star David Beckham, then playing for powerhouse club Manchester United.
But Mr Tracy told the Bulletin at the time his most challenging project was something else entirely.
In early 1998 he was commissioned to recreate the 176carat sapphire Heart of the Ocean necklace from James Cameron’s film Titanic which was worn by singer Celine Dion at that year’s Academy Awards.
It was sold two days earlier for $1.3 million and featured 103 diamonds.
Mr Tracy did his apprenticeship with Paradise Jewellers and was nominated for the 1993 Queensland Jewellery Apprentice of the Year.
His mum Deborah paid tribute to him when speaking to the Bulletin in 1999. “He thinks it is funny that he is this surfie bum, a laid-back surfer type of guy who is doing what he is doing – he just loves it so much.”
The royal wedding was on June 19, 1999, and attended by notable guests including Tom Jones, John Travolta, John Cleese and Charles Dance.
Edward was created Earl of Wessex while Sophie became Countess of Wessex.