Queen Mother’s Diamond Thistle Brooch

Happy St. Andrew’s Day! St. Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland and November 30th is the National Day of Scotland. The Thistle is the floral emblem of Scotland, represented in the Order of the Thistle, and thus today, we are featuring a royal jewel that highlight’s the thistle: the Queen Mother’s Diamond Thistle Brooch!

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Of unknown provenance, this antique diamond thistle brooch featuring two thistles may be an older Royal Heirloom or may have been bought for the Scottish Queen Elizabeth (the later Queen Mother), who often wore it, similar to her emblematic Maple Leaf Brooch, on her hat for a plethora of occasions through the 1940s, though it seems not to have been publicly worn in the decades afterwards, except at events like the Braemar Games during the 1950s. History of Famous Jewels suggests that the Brooch could have come from the Greville Bequest.

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After the Queen Mother’s death in 2002, all of her jewels were inherited by the Queen, but as the wife of the late Queen Mother’s favourite grandson, the Prince of Wales, many of them have been loaned to the Duchess of Cornwall, which include the Diamond Thistle Brooch, which made an appearance for the first time in decades on a visit to New Zealand in 2015.

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The Duchess of Cornwall wore the Queen Mother’s Diamond Thistle Brooch earlier this year, when she read Robert Burns’ ‘My Heart’s in the Highlands’ to mark Burns Night and then wore the Brooch again last month for the Scottish Opening of Parliament, when she accompanied the Queen who was wearing her own Thistle Brooch, inherited from Queen Mary. With all these recent appearences, there is no doubt we will continue to see her soon!

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One thought on “Queen Mother’s Diamond Thistle Brooch

  1. This brooch is quite pretty! The Queen Mother was a Scottish lady before she married the future King, so the brooch’s provenance is impeccable. I am so glad to see that the Duchess of Cornwall is happy to wear it when she’s in Scotland. After all, it is a lovely brooch!

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