WHO WORE IT BEST?
Certain pieces of jewellery from the queen’s collection have been spotted on different royals through the years.
“The queen doesn’t give the jewels as gifts – they still remain part of her personal collection – but she allows royal family members to wear them,” Kiehna explains.
Queen Mary’s lover’s knot tiara, for example, was made in 1913 and fashioned after a similar headpiece worn by her grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel.
On Mary’s death in 1953, the headpiece was inherited by her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
Her Majesty lent it to Princess Diana but after Diana’s death in 1997 it wasn’t seen in public again until the Duchess of Cambridge wore it to Buckingham Palace in 2015. Since then, it’s become one of Kate’s favourite tiaras. The tiara is estimated to be worth between $1m and $2m (R15m and R30m).
THE JEWEL HOUSE
The royal jewels are stored in the Jewel House, a vault in the Tower of London, the nearly 1 000- year- old fortress built by William the Conqueror in the centre of London. They have been kept there since the 1600s.
The tower and the jewels are visited by more than three million people annually and the jewels are protected by bomb-proof glass cases, a garrison of soldiers, a worldclass security system and a guard detail of ex-military personnel.
SOUTH AFRICA’S GIFT
One of the most-treasured items in the jewel collection is the Cullinan diamond. Weighing 3 106,75 carats, it is the largest diamond ever discovered and the mostcelebrated diamond in the world.
It was mined in Pretoria and presented to King Edward VII by the then government of the Transvaal – then a British colony – in 1907 as a symbolic gesture to heal the rift between Britain and SA after the Boer War.
The stone was sent to Asscher of Amsterdam, then the world’s foremost diamond cutters. Over the course of eight months, three men worked 14 hours a day to cut and polish nine large stones from the original diamond, each numbered I to IX.
Some unpolished fragments were also created along with 97 small brilliants.
After King Edward’s death in 1910, King George V had Cullinan I and II set in the sovereign’s sceptre and the imperial state crown.
The remaining numbered diamonds were kept by Asscher as payment for their work and Cullinan VI and VIII were later brought privately by King Edward VII as a gift for his wife, Queen Alexandra.
The rest were acquired by the South African government and given to Queen Mary in 1910. They were bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth at her inauguration.
KOH-I-NOOR
The Queen Mother’s crown is one of the most impressive displays in the Jewel House. Its platinum frame is set with 2 800 diamonds, including the Koh- i- Noor diamond which dates back to the 13th century. Its name means “mountain of light” and, according to legend, it brings good luck to any woman who wears it – but disaster to any man.
DARK PAST
The crown jewels are no strangers to tough times.
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Bad King John is believed to have lost some of the crown jewels in the marshy fens of Norfolk in 1216, when he took a shortcut to quell a rebellion. The king had a caravan of carriages travelling with him, which contained the jewels – and when all the carriages sank, so did the treasure. The jewels were never recovered.
Bad King John was so named because of his cruel and lascivious nature and is the basis of the Robin Hood villain Prince John. •
King Edward III pawned some of the jewels to pay his troops during the Hundred Years’ War in the 14th century. Most of them eventually made their way back. •
In World War 2 the crown jewels were hidden in a biscuit tin at Windsor Castle to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis. The stones, including the imperial state crown, were placed in the tin and buried under a sally port, a secured entryway to an enclosure such as a prison.