Queen’s Three-Strand Pearl Necklace

At the start of this month, we featured the Queen’s Belgian Sapphire Tiara, Brazilian Aquamarine Tiara, and Burmese Ruby Tiara as well as the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II, as part of a reflective look at the jewels worn by the late Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away last month, which leads us to the jewel worn by the late Queen almost every day for over seven decades; her Three-Strand Pearl Necklace.

When the Queen came to the Throne in 1952, she possessed a double row pearl necklace, the Queen Anne and Queen Caroline Pearls, and a small three-strand pearl necklace which was a Silver Jubilee gift from her grandfather, King George V, in 1935. To compensate for the large three-stand pearl necklace that was retained by the Queen Mother, the Queen commissioned a Three-Strand Pearl Necklace using graduated pearls from the family collection, fastened with a small diamond clasp.

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The Queen began wearing the Three-Strand Pearl Necklace on her 6-month Commonwealth Tour, first in Tonga, then in New Zealand and Australia, before it became a regular part of her daily wardrobe, though the Queen continued to wear her King George V Pearls as well through the 1950s and 1960s.

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By the 1970s, the Three-Strand Pearl Necklace had become a staple in the Queen’s wardrobe, being worn almost daily with the Queen’s massive collection of brooches, for royal events at home and on Tours and State Visits abroad.

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In recent decades, the Queen’s Three-Strand Pearl Necklace had become an iconic part of her look, along with her monochromatic coats and hats and brooches, worn most recently for her Platinum Jubilee Celebrations Pageant (when I saw her appear on the Balcony) and for Holyrood Week in Scotland later that month. The Queen took the Pearls with her to Balmoral Castle, where they were worn when the Queen appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss just two days before she passed away.

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Unlike the rest of the Queen’s jewels, which may not be publicly worn for decades, the Three-Strand Pearl Necklace appeared less than 10 days after they were worn by the Queen, on the Princess Royal, who first wore the Pearls on a visit to Glasgow ahead of the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Just a few weeks later, Princess Anne wore the Three-Strand Pearl Necklace on two separate occasions on a visit to New York City, paired with her Diamond Bow Brooch.

More recently, the Princess Royal has been wearing the Queen’s Three-Strand Pearl Necklace on a visit to Uganda, when it was notably worn with Empress Marie Feodorovna’s Sapphire Brooch. Given all the recent appearances, there is no doubt we will continue to see these splendid pearls for years to come!