Look who’s wearing her Prince of Wales pendant now . . .
Diana left her jewellery to her sons, to be held on trust by her brother Earl Spencer until each reached their 30th birthday, according to a letter of wishes signed the day after she made her will.
However, this last wish did not apply to jewellery owned by the Crown — that is, gifts from members of the Royal Family which revert to the reigning monarch on their owner’s death.
among these was the Prince of Wales’s feather pendant, a wedding present from the Queen Mother. Bearing her husband’s heraldic badge, three ostrich feathers emerging from a diamondencrusted coronet, it became one of Diana’s favourite accessories.
Originally a wedding gift in 1863 from the Ladies of Bristol to Princess alexandra of Denmark when she married Bertie, the then-Prince of Wales who became Edward Vii, it was passed down to her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, and then to Mary’s daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who gave it to the new Princess of Wales in 1981. Diana preferred to suspend the pendant (above left) on a short tennis necklace, part of a suite of diamonds she received as a wedding present from the Crown Prince of Saudi arabia.
When Diana died, the piece became part of the Queen’s collection once again, free to be borrowed by other royal ladies with Her Majesty’s permis- sion. Somewhat surprisingly, the first and only wearer of the pendant has been Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
She wore it to a premiere with her husband in 2006 (above right) — but as a brooch, not a necklace. Royal watchers weren’t sure what to make of Charles’s second wife wearing his late first wife’s jewels. But Camilla looked happy and Charles delighted it was back in circulation after so long.