I’m popping back in earlier than planned to share some more gorgeous preview images from this summer’s Royal Collection Trust exhibition at Buckingham Palace. The show traces the evolution of royal photography over the last century, and there are images of some gorgeous royal jewels included in the exhibition.
Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography opens on Friday in the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Per the press materials, the exhibition “charts the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day through more than 150 items from the Royal Collection and Royal Archives. The photographs presented in the exhibition are vintage prints–the original works produced by the photographer–most of which are on display for the first time.”
Many of the vintage prints shown cannot be permanently displayed “for conservation reasons,” making this a rare opportunity to see some of the pictures in person. With the images, the curators have also selected “archival correspondence and never-before-seen proofs that will give visitors a behind-the-scenes insight into the process of creating such unforgettable royal portraits.” Some of the pictures chosen are unreleased images that have never been seen by the public before.
Back in April, I offered a little glimpse inside the exhibition, previewing some of the images and ephemera included, both here at The Court Jeweller and in a free edition of my Substack newsletter, Hidden Gems. Today, the RCT has offered us even more preview images, and I thought I’d highlight some of the pictures that feature royal jewels today.
We’ll take a little trip through royal jewelry history in the exhibition preview images, starting with the earliest surviving photographic print of a member of the Royal Family produced in color. This picture isn’t colorized–it’s an actual color photograph from the wedding of the Duke of Gloucester and Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott in November 1935. Madame Yevonde, who was a pioneer in the development of color photography, took this image of Princess Alice in her wedding gown before the ceremony so that it could be wired to news organizations around the globe to include in their coverage of the wedding day.
For the private wedding, which was scaled back after the unexpected death of Alice’s father, the bride wore a dress of pearl-pink satin and a headdress made of orange blossoms and small crystals. She wore pearls with the dress, including the single-stranded pearl necklace that had been given to her by her father, the late 7th Duke of Buccleuch, as a wedding present.
As we discussed over at Hidden Gems, the summer exhibition features a whole lot of fascinating photographs from the late Queen Mother’s collaborations with Cecil Beaton and Sir Normal Hartnell. Queen Elizabeth wears one of her Hartnell “white wardrobe” gowns with pearls in this picture, taken in the gardens at Buckingham Palace in 1939.
The exhibition includes several contact sheets of proofs from different portrait session. These images, also taken by Cecil Beaton at Buckingham Palace in 1939, show Queen Elizabeth in several grand evening gowns with gala jewels. Among the jewelry pieces pictured are Queen Victoria’s Indian Circlet and the Crown Rubies, Queen Mary’s Diamond Fringe Tiara, the Coronation Necklace and Earrings, Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation Necklace, and Queen Victoria’s Diamond Fringe Brooch.
A year later, everything had changed. Now in the midst of World War II, the royal family didn’t escape the terror of the Blitz. Beaton photographed the King and Queen together as they inspected bombing damage at Buckingham Palace. Instead of a grand tiara and a floaty Hartnell gown, Elizabeth now wears a sturdier jacket and skirt. But she still always added a bejeweled touch. This time, it’s pearls and her Cartier Palm Leaf Brooch.
The war was still raging in Europe when Beaton photographed the young Princess Elizabeth in 1942, the year she turned sixteen. That year, her father named her honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards, a role that she particularly cherished. The regiment gifted her with a diamond-studded badge during her first public engagement–a regimental parade and visit–on her birthday in April 1942. She’s wearing it on her jacket in the portrait above. Elizabeth treasured the badge for the rest of her life, and today it’s worn by her daughter-in-law, Queen Camilla.
Beaton also took this cozy family photograph of the King and Queen with their daughters at Royal Lodge in Windsor during the war. The family is dressed more casually, but there are still jewelry touches here and there. Queen Elizabeth wears pearls, and both Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret wear small brooches. Elizabeth’s appears to be her petite jardinière brooch.
After the war, glamor returned to the royal family. Beaton took this famous portrait of Princess Margaret in 1949 to mark her 19th birthday. With a gown festooned with sparkling butterflies, Margaret wore two pieces of pearl jewelry from her collection: a five-stranded pearl necklace, which had been her 18th birthday gift from Queen Mary, and a two-row pearl bracelet from Mikimoto. Both pieces featured elaborate diamond clasps, and both were sold at Christie’s after her death.
Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952 after the death of her father, King George VI. Early on, the photographer Dorothy Wilding took several iconic pictures of the new monarch, including the portrait above. In the image, the new monarch wears one of her wedding gifts, the Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace, which was most recently seen on the Princess of Wales. Elizabeth is also wearing her diamond and pearl wedding earrings, legacies from Queen Mary that once belonged to George III’s daughter, Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh.
Cecil Beaton took the official pictures at Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, including this iconic portrait of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. In the image, Elizabeth wears her coronation gown and robes with the Imperial State Crown, the Coronation Necklace and Earrings, the Armills, and the Coronation Ring. The signed print shown here was sent to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
In contrast to the splendor of the official coronation portraits, the exhibition also showcases this more intimate image from Princess Margaret’s collection. The photograph was taken by Beaton in 1955 to celebrate Margaret’s 25th birthday. Her dog, Pippin, sits in her lap, and the magnificent five-stranded pearl necklace makes another appearance as well. The birthday was a pivotal one for Margaret: she had reached an age when she could marry without the consent of the sovereign. But just a few months after her birthday, she announced to the world that she had decided not to marry the divorced equerry Group Captain Peter Townsend, ending years of speculation about their relationship.
Soon, another suitor had entered Margaret’s life. In 1959, she announced her engagement to society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones. He had already been responsible for several official royal portraits. The photograph of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip above was taken by Armstrong-Jones in 1958 on the day of the State Opening of Parliament. In the picture, the Queen wears the Diamond Diadem with the Diamond Festoon Necklace, the Mackinnon Floret Earrings, and the Edinburgh Wedding Bracelet.
After Margaret and Tony’s royal wedding, the Queen made him Earl of Snowdon. For the rest of his life afterward, he simply referred to himself as Snowdon in his professional role as a photographer, including images taken of the royal family both during and after his royal marriage. The charming image above, taken by Snowdon, commemorates the royal baby boom of 1964.
The four new royal babies are pictured with their mothers: James Ogilvy (Princess Alexandra), Prince Edward (Queen Elizabeth II), Lady Helen Windsor (the Duchess of Kent), and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (Princess Margaret). In the picture, both the Queen and the Duchess of Kent wear pearls and brooches. The Queen appears to be wearing her Modern Ruby and Diamond Spray Brooch.
Snowdon is also known for his arresting portraits of his royal wife, Princess Margaret. This picture dates to 1967, and it highlights one of Margaret’s antique earrings set with green gemstones. The stones in the earrings are thought to be either emeralds or jade. They now belong to her daughter, Lady Sarah Chatto.
Other photographers also got the chance to take portraits of the Queen and her family members in the last decades of the twentieth century. The exhibition includes this call sheet from a famous portrait session with the Queen and Princess Margaret sitting for Norman Parkinson. The Queen Mother is also featured in some pictures from the session, which featured the royal ladies wearing bright blue fabric drapes with red edging. In these proofs, both Elizabeth and Margaret are wearing brooches. Margaret wears a pearl and diamond spray brooch, later sold at Christie’s, while Elizabeth wears one of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Bow Brooches.
The exhibition also includes several familiar portraits of the Queen. This iconic image from Andy Warhold’s Reigning Queens series is based on an official photograph taken in 1975 by Peter Grugeon and released later to celebrate Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee. In the picture, Elizabeth wears the pearl setting of the Vladimir Tiara with Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Necklace. The details of the earrings aren’t discernable in the Warhol image, but the Grugeon picture reveals that they’re Queen Alexandra’s Wedding Earrings.
Two more modern photographic portraits of Elizabeth II are also included, both taken just before her own Golden Jubilee in 2002. This image by Rankin shows her wearing her usual daytime pearls with the Pearl Trefoil Brooch.
And this portrait, taken the same year by Polly Borland, features the Queen wearing the same pearls with the Jardine Star Brooch.
One of the newest photographs featured in the exhibition is Paolo Roversi’s 2021 picture of the Princess of Wales (then Duchess of Cambridge), taken to mark her 40th birthday. It’s one of a series of three images published from the portrait session. This ethereal picture, inspired by Victorian photographs and paintings, shows Catherine wearing the Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings and the Nigel Milne Pearl Bracelet with her iconic diamond and sapphire engagement ring.
Fittingly, the Royal Collection Trust has chosen to exhibit Winterhalter’s portrait of another Princess of Wales, Queen Alexandra, near the Roversi photograph to demonstrate the inspiration behind the newer image. Like the Warhol portrait of the Queen, the Winterhalter painting features Alexandra’s diamond and pearl wedding earrings, plus the central section of her wedding necklace as a brooch.
If you’re lucky enough to be in London over the next several months, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see these pictures and many more in person at the King’s Gallery. The exhibition opens tomorrow, Friday, May 17, and runs until October 6. You can learn more about the exhibition here at the RCT website.
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