Queen Victoria Eugenie’s Emerald Brooch

Today marks the Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, who was born on this day in 1887! Queen Ena had a splendid jewellery collection, pilled with family heirlooms and contemporary acquisitions and commissions. Many of her jewels still remain with the Spanish Royal Family and are now worn by Queen Sofia and Queen Letizia but today we are featuring an exquisite piece which was left to a different branch of the family!

Comprising a pair of earrings and a large brooch (previously worn as a pendant), this demi-parure was just two more of Queen Ena’s spectacular emerald-set jewels. The earrings feature emerald drops surrounded by a diamond frame. The brooch has two impressive cabochon emeralds, the first set in a single diamond ring while the second presents a double diamond border. Both elements are connected trough a diamond-set bar. Throughout the years, as fashion changed, both pieces appear to have been adapted, as the long earrings were shortened, and the pendant converted into a brooch.

Unfortunately, the origin of those jewels is still uncertain. However, one of the oval cabochon emeralds seems to have been set as a solo brooch in Queen Victoria Eugenie’s early years of marriage. The drops, which were later mounted as earrings, could correspond to a couple of the emerald pendants that the Queen had suspended from a rivière also in her early years as Queen of Spain.

Fortunately, the Emerald Demi-Parure was kept intact during Her Majesty’s life in exile. We can admire the always elegant Queen Ena wearing the brooch for the Wedding of Princess Alexandra of Kent at Westminster Abbey in 1963 and for the Wedding of her granddaughter, Princess Olimpia Torlonia, in 1965.

When Queen Ena died in 1969, it seems that both pieces were inherited by her eldest daughter, Infanta Beatriz, Princess of Civitella-Cesi. Sadly, we were not able to find pictures of Doña Beatriz wearing the Emerald Demi-Parure. Later, the Emerald Suite was worn by the Infanta’s eldest daughter, Alessandra, most known as Sandra. In fact, Countess Lequio haf already borrowed both pieces quite often during her mother’s lifetime, namely for Prince Guillaume of Luxemburg and Sibilla Weiller’s Wedding Gala in 1994 and during King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia’s State Visit to Italy in 1998.

The Emerald Demi-Parure was seen for the last time in public in 2008, when Doña Sandra paired them with a very traditional Spanish Mantilla for the Wedding of her son Count Alessandro Lequio. It appears that they have been inherited by her daughter, Desiree, after her passing in 2014.

In 2024, Queen Victoria Eugenie’s Emerald Brooch is going on Auction at Christie’s in Geneva, with an estimate of CHF 150,000 – CHF 200,000.

EARLY 20TH CENTURY EMERALD AND DIAMOND PENDENT BROOCH
Sugarloaf and oval-shaped cabochon emeralds, old, rose, and calibré-cut diamonds, platinum, single pin detachable of later addition, circa 1915