Last week, Queen Camila wore a long-forgotten Royal Heirloom for the final Day of Royal Ascot; a striking Diamond Watch Brooch given to Queen Mary as a Wedding Gift by Alice de Rothschild in 1893, which had not been seen publicly seen since 1936!
Princess May of Teck received Seven Tiaras, Fifteen Necklaces, Twenty-Six Bracelets, and Forty-Four Brooches among the 130 spectacular pieces of Jewellery given by Family, Friends, Cities, Institutions and Counties from various parts of the United Kingdom and the British Empire when she married her late fiancé’s brother, the future King George V, in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace in 1893.
Among of those forty-four Brooches was this detachable Diamond Watch in the shape of the rose of York suspended from a scrolled Diamond Bow, which was given by the Heiress Alice de Rothschild.
Queen Mary, when Duchess of Cornwall and York, notably wore the Diamond Watch Brooch for a group photograph at Government House in Pietermaritzburg in South Africa in 1901.
Later during that same eight-month Empire Tour, the Duchess of Cornwall and York wore the Diamond Bow for a photograph at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
At some point by the mid-1930s, Queen Mary gave the Diamond Watch Brooch to her daughter-in-law, the then Duchess of York, who wore it for a visit to British Industries House in July 1936, a few months before her husband’s accession to the Throne, as discovered by our wonderful Beth of HFJC. Despite not being publicly worn, the Brooch no doubt remained in her collection until her death in 2002 and was not worn by the late Queen either.
Now, the Queen Mary’s Diamond Watch Brooch was debuted by Queen Camilla on the final Day of Royal Ascot in 2025. Lets see if this was a one-time wear or if this Brooch will become a regular in Queen Camilla’s Brooch rotation!
Beth at History Famous Jewels did much of the research on this Brooch, which you can read through below:
Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara
Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara
Burmese Ruby Tiara
The Belgian Sapphire Tiara
Greville Tiara
Delhi Durbar Tiara
Cubitt-Shand Tiara
Queen’s Five Aquamarine Tiara
George IV State Diadem
Queen Mary’s Crown
Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara
King George VI Festoon Necklace
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