Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection: craft and history

The Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection reads as a record of her 70-year reign, each piece marking a gift, an inheritance or a state occasion.
By day, her Queen Elizabeth necklace was three strands of pearls, a thread we follow in our celebrity pearl necklace guide. By night, emeralds and diamonds carried the ceremony.

At Jaipur Gems, founded in 1974, we read these pieces as craftspeople do: through setting, proportion and the hands that made them.

Quick Answer: Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection

The Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection is a record of her reign, told through gifts and inheritance. Five pieces capture it well: her engagement ring, the Crown Amethysts Suite of Jewels, her three-strand pearls, the Delhi Durbar necklace and the South Africa necklace. Each carries a date, a giver and a story.

The engagement ring that opened her married life

In the summer of 1947, Prince Philip proposed to the future Queen with a ring set with diamonds from a tiara that had belonged to his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg of Greece. The tiara was one of the few pieces Philip's family managed to take with them when they went into exile from Greece during a period of political turmoil.

That history gives the ring a weight well beyond its stones. It was made from what had survived. Of everything in the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection, it is perhaps the clearest example of a principle every jeweller understands: settings change, while fine stones endure and can be given new form.

• Proposal: summer 1947

• Stones: diamonds taken from a tiara owned by Princess Alice of Battenberg of Greece

• Provenance: one of the pieces the family carried into exile

• Craft lesson: heirloom stones can be reset, so a jewel's story outlasts its original design
  
  

The Crown Amethysts Suite in the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection

For a 1985 visit to Portugal, the Queen wore a set of earrings, a necklace and a brooch known together as the Crown Amethysts Suite of Jewels. The suite first belonged to the Duchess of Kent, who was Queen Victoria's mother and the Queen's great-great-great-grandmother.

A matched suite of this kind is a statement of formality in itself. Worn together, three pieces in one stone read as a single composition rather than separate jewels, which is why suites were traditionally reserved for occasions of state. Indian ceremonial dress works on the same idea of a composed set, as our Nita Ambani necklace guide shows. The amethysts also show the range of the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection: alongside its diamonds and pearls sat coloured stones with a lineage of their own.

• Pieces: earrings, necklace and brooch

• First owner: the Duchess of Kent, mother of Queen Victoria

• Generations: five, from the Duchess of Kent to Queen Elizabeth

• Worn: a 1985 visit to Portugal
  
  

The three-strand pearl Queen Elizabeth necklace she wore by day

This three-strand pearl necklace was the Queen's choice for everyday engagements, and she was seen wearing it year after year across her 70-year reign. She wore it on a visit to Tuvalu in the South Pacific in 1982, and again in 1992, 2006, 2012 and 2021.

As a Queen Elizabeth necklace, it did its work through consistency rather than scale. That quiet repetition became part of how the public recognised her. Pearls have held that place in public dress for generations, as the pieces in our celebrity pearl necklace feature show.

• Role: her daytime piece for public engagements

• Form: three strands, worn close to the collar

• Years recorded: 1982, 1992, 2006, 2012 and 2021

• Lesson: a single well-chosen strand can define a personal style for decades
  
  

The Delhi Durbar necklace, her most memorable Queen Elizabeth necklace

 With its emeralds and diamonds, the Delhi Durbar necklace was a frequent choice for state dinners. The necklace carries nine emeralds first owned by Queen Mary's grandmother, the Duchess of Cambridge. It was the centrepiece of the jewels made for Queen Mary for the final Delhi Durbar in India in 1911, when the British Empire was at its most powerful and largest. The Queen inherited the necklace in 1953.

From the necklace hangs another of the Cullinan diamonds, a stone of 8.8 carats. The Royal Collection Trust records how the Cullinan stones entered the royal jewels. The pendant gives this Queen Elizabeth necklace its focal point, a single colourless stone set against the green of the emeralds.  

• Emeralds: nine, won by the Duchess of Cambridge in 1818

• Diamond pendant: a Cullinan stone of 8.8 carats

• Made for: Queen Mary, for the 1911 Delhi Durbar

• Inherited: 1953, and worn often at state dinners

The South Africa necklace: diamonds for a 21st birthday

 The South Africa necklace and bracelet were given to Princess Elizabeth for her 21st birthday in 1947 by the Government of South Africa. Made in London, the necklace was presented at her birthday ball during her parents' tour of South Africa. It was set with 21 graduated round brilliant-cut diamonds, separated by baguette diamonds, and was later adapted into a shorter necklace and a bracelet.

The brilliant cut is faceted to return light, the opposite approach to the stones explained in our guide on what is uncut diamond.  

• Occasion: her 21st birthday, 1947

• Given by: the Government of South Africa

• Stones: 21 graduated round brilliant-cut diamonds with baguette spacers

• Later form: a shorter necklace and a separate bracelet
  
  

Two traditions, one discipline: the craft behind the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection

The five pieces above belong largely to a European setting tradition, built around faceted diamonds and settings designed to let light pass through each stone. Indian Kundan and Jadau pursue a different discipline with equal rigour, where stones are held in closed settings of highly refined gold and diamonds often keep their natural form. 

In our workshop, we design and make our Polki, Jadau and Kundan pieces in-house, and as a member of the GJEPC, we belong to the apex body for India's gem and jewellery trade.

Wearing a royal-inspired look today

The lesson of the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection is restraint: one defining piece, worn with conviction, rather than many worn at once. Each piece in the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection above suggests a way to dress today.

For a formal evening: emeralds and diamonds

The Delhi Durbar necklace shows how emeralds and diamonds carry a state occasion. The Emerald Forte Diamond Necklace White Gold follows the same logic, hanging as a single line that comes to its point at the front, with 23 emeralds graded against its 573 diamonds for tone before a single stone was set. The design was resolved before the first stone was ordered, so the settings follow the drawing. For more pieces in this spirit, our Diamond Necklace Sets offer a natural place to begin.

• 18KT white gold, 69.85g

• 573 diamonds and 23 emeralds, 39.34 carats in total

• Available for private viewing at our Mumbai flagship

For day: pearls at the collar

Her three-strand pearls prove that a daytime piece works through consistency, not scale. The Sterling Diamond Necklace White Gold Pearl brings pearls and diamonds together, with sections graduated towards the centre so the necklace sits level, much as the graduated stones of the South Africa necklace gave it balance at the throat.

• 18KT white gold, 57.05g

• 438 diamonds and 7 pearls, each stone seated and tightened by hand

• Pearls and diamonds sorted for colour first, so neither competes with the other

For colour: a composed set

The Crown Amethysts Suite showed how matched pieces read as one. The Summer Bloom Meenakari Gold Necklace Set Yellow Gold Ruby Emerald works the same way: its earrings take one element of the necklace rather than shrinking the whole design, and its blooms repeat at a steady interval across the piece. It brings Indian meenakari to a principle the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection made familiar.

• 22KT yellow gold, 114.17g

• 12 emeralds and 18 rubies, 7.75 carats of rubies

• Rubies and emeralds sorted for colour first, so the two stones sit in harmony

To frame the face: diamond studs

Earrings do the quieter work of framing the face, beneath a necklace rather than competing with it. The Marge Stud Diamond Earrings Rose Gold are built from flower heads set at their own heights, so the surface is never flat, with 98 diamonds following the line of the piece. A stud has nowhere to hide, which is why its form is closed and post-set. More options sit within our Diamond Earrings, designed to move from a daytime ceremony to an evening reception.

• 18KT rose gold, 8.15g

• 98 diamonds, 1.15 carats in total

• Every stage made under one roof, from drawing to polish
  
  

A legacy measured in continuity 

The Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection endures because its pieces were worn, adapted and passed on rather than locked away. Diamonds from a family tiara became an engagement ring, a birthday necklace became a necklace and a bracelet. That idea of continuity sits close to our own. 

For readers who want to go further, the Jaipur Gems blog looks closely at the craft, materials and techniques behind pieces like these. 

Jaipur Gems has been a second-generation family house since 1974, and for over fifty years it has designed and made its jewellery in-house. The pieces in this guide are one part of that longer story. Beyond necklaces and earrings, the wider Jaipur Gems collections, across Polki, Jadau, Kundan and bridal jewellery, follow the same discipline, where proportion and hand-setting count as much as the materials themselves. 

Frequently asked questions

What is Queen Elizabeth's most expensive jewellery?

No official valuation exists. The Cullinan III and IV brooch, cut from the largest rough diamond ever found, is widely regarded as the most valuable piece in the Queen Elizabeth jewellery collection.

Who got all of Queen Elizabeth's jewellery?

King Charles III holds the Crown Jewels in right of the Crown. Her will is private, but her personal jewels are understood to have passed largely to him, in line with royal tradition.

Does any of Queen Elizabeth I's jewellery still exist?

Very little, as the old regalia was destroyed in 1649. The Phoenix Jewel at the British Museum survives, and the Drake Jewel at the V&A is by tradition her gift to Sir Francis Drake.

Who owns the Queen's jewels?

The Crown Jewels are held by the reigning sovereign in right of the Crown. Personal pieces, including each Queen Elizabeth necklace she owned privately, are family property rather than state regalia.

What is the most expensive jewel in the royal family?

Cullinan I, the Great Star of Africa, set in the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross. At over 530 carats, it is the largest cut colourless diamond and has never been officially valued.