Greville Emerald Earrings

Next week marks the 160th Anniversary of the Birth of Dame Margaret Greville, the Hon Mrs Greville The illegitimate daughter of a brewery millionaire, she married the son of a Baron, and became a noted Society Hostess, from her magnificent home at Polesden Lacey, getting close to the Queen Mother, to whom she left her enormous Jewellery Collection, so we are featuring several of her jewels, continuing with the Greville Emerald Earrings!

Mrs. Greville had a massive collection of Emeralds, which included the Greville Emerald Tiara and two spectacular Emerald Necklaces, and was frequently described wearing her ‘famed’ emeralds in the press. The origin of the faceted emeralds is unknown, but Mrs Greville appears to have worn them on her hair while in fancy dress in the early 1900s.

In 1923, Mrs. Greville had the faceted Emeralds set into this pair of earrings, which features the emeralds suspended from round, square, and hexagonal-cut diamonds, that were ordered at Boucheron in Paris, a few years after she commissioned the Greville Emerald Tiara.

Dame Margaret Greville seems to have worn the Emerald Earrings with the Emerald Tiara and Emerald Necklaces for a Concert at the Austrian Embassy in London in 1937, during the Coronation Festvities for King George VI.

On the death of Dame Margaret Greville, the Hon Mrs Greville in 1942, the majority of her magnificent Jewellery Collection, all pieces valued over 100 pounds, was inherited by Queen Elizabeth. In 1942, the Queen wrote to Queen Mary:

I must tell you that Mrs Greville has left me her jewels, She has left them to me ‘with her loving thoughts,’ dear old thing, and I feel very touched, I don’t suppose I shall see what they consist of for a long time, owing to the slowness of lawyers & death duties etc, but it is rather exciting to be left something, and I do admire beautiful stones with all my heart.”

When the jewels arrived to the Queen a few months later, there was much unwanted press attention on the contents of the initialled black trunk, which included the Greville Diamond Tiara, an Emerald Tiara, the Festoon Necklace, the Diamond Chandelier Earrings, Emerald Earrings, a Ruby Necklace, two Emerald Necklaces, Ivy Leaf Clips, Diamond Bow Brooch, and a pair of Pearl Earrings, alongside several spectacular Diamond Earrings, Necklaces, Brooches and Bracelets, the true extent of which has never been publicly revealed.

Queen Elizabeth began wearing the Emerald Earrings by the late 1940s, paired with the Emerald Necklace and Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara, and they also made a notable appearance at the Christening of Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace in 1950.

The Queen Mother often wore the Greville Emerald Earrings through the next few years, usually paired with the Emerald Necklace and the Greville Diamond Tiara, being worn for Princess Margaret’s Engagement Gala Performance in 1960, the Belgian State Visit to Britain in 1963, the Wedding of her goddaughter, Princess Benedikte of Denmark, and Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in 1968, and the Dutch State Visit to Britain in 1972, and the Swedish State Visit to Britain in 1975.

The Greville Emerald Earrings continued to be worn by the Queen Mother until the end of her life, being paired with the Emerald Necklace for the Queen’s ‘Dance of the Decades’ to mark the 90th Birthday of the Queen Mother, the 60th of Princess Margaret, the 40th of Princess Anne, and the 30th of Prince Andrew, at Buckingham Palace in 1990, and also being worn for a Performance of Oklahoma! in London in 1998.

After the Queen Mother’s passing in 2002, the Emerald Earrings, like all of her other jewels, were inherited by her daughter, the Queen, who was first depicted in them in a portrait by James Lloyd commissioned by Queen’s College, Cambridge in 2010, paired with the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara and the Cambridge Emerald Necklace.

The Greville Emerald Earrings were also worn by the Queen, paired with the Vladimir Tiara and a mystery Emerald Necklace likely also from the Greville Collection, for the Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace in 2019, which was her final tiara appearance. Lets hope we see this spectacular jewel worn again soon, likely on the Princess of Wales, who has been recently wearing the Greville Diamond Chandelier Earrings!