Thread by @JulieTheCranky

Okay all, a #BroochWarfare stream of consciousness.

First, if you're new here, or confused, have what's left of the original saga, available here, vox.com/2018/7/19/1758…

And for the more amusing, blurred out for vulgarity (HA!) version, dailymail.co.uk/femail/article…

...twitter ate that account. FYI.

Lately her majesty has laid low, understandably, and been under the weather. I hope she didn't suffer, and we aren't in the habit of trashing little old ladies around here so if you're here for real smack, it isn't happening.

But, brooch warfare was a thing QE did, and we enjoyed following. After I went viral over it in 2018 (where in hell does the time go?) places started regularly reporting on her brooches and friend, it is SURREAL. robbreport.com/style/jewelry/…

Most often, the noteworthy messages via jewelry were during state dinners.

Generally? They were not terribly noteworthy. This is a tiara her grandmother bought from a Russian refugee and a shell brooch from her mother. "Hi, welcome to the place" sort of thing.

Sometimes it was pretty amusing for other reasons, like Queen Max wearing the Stuart Tiara as in UK Stuarts, there was an inheritance issue a couple hundred years ago and the Netherlands wound up with it.

So of course Max wore it.

It is not small.

By all accounts Queen Letizia was fond of QE, and rolled up in the "La Buena" tiara that only queens of Spain wear, probably pried out of her MIL's grasping hands on the way out the door.

It's another one with a UK provenance, Queen Victoria gave it to one of her daughters (granddaughter? I can't be arsed), who went off to marry the King of Spain.

And then, this happened.

That tiara on her head? First time she'd worn it in TWELVE YEARS.

Background? She designed it herself, using rubies given to her by the people of Burma, to ensure good health, long life, and protection from negative things.

Hey, I couldn't make this shit up. The snowflake brooch finished me.

What was also fun, during that visit QE wore a lot of the Cambridge Emeralds, mostly in brooch form.

Along with other suspicious history around them, they were once taken from Queen Mary's brother's mistress, after he died and QM was having none of it.

One thing that's going to be VERY interesting, I think, is what's going to turn up on Camilla and Kate (and possibly Sophie), out of the vault.

Because I'm damn sure there are secrets in there. Lots of 'em.

Also? Remember Eug's wedding tiara?

The Queen Mum inherited it literally a century ago, and it sat in the vault until Eug wanted an emerald tiara. It was said to be a huge behest. What else is there? Who is going to show up in it?

And as for speaking with brooches and jewelry, I think QE had branched out a bit and was sending messages with other people's jewelry, namely Meghan's wedding tiara.

There was some brouhaha and confusion surrounding it, but that tiara? Was designed by and made for Queen Mary. She is the only other person to ever wear it. We have some iffy images:

The central rosette is a brooch that Mary was given for her wedding, and she had a tiara built around it, because of course she did. There's one crap image of her wearing it, but have a closeup.

So. Queen Mary was literally crowned the Empress of India among other things, is considered probably the highest ranking consort to ever kick ass in the UK, and QE was raised by her and knew ALL OF THAT.

And put it on Meghan's head.

I think it was a deliberate act.

Signaling acceptance. We all know it went to hell from there, but at the beginning, I fully believe that QE was happy to have her, and I don't think that changed.

QE wore another brooch that was gifted to Mary for her wedding. The Richmond Brooch 'cause that's who paid for it.

...this is taking a while because I'm researching as we go and my memory isn't THAT photographic.

Another closeup:

...pretty sure the one on the right is the Royal Collection knockoff, you can get those.

But, anyway, sometimes a brooch is just a family piece with some happy memories attached.

For Wil and Kate, she wore a bow.

Bows are symbols of marriage in heraldry.

Camilla wore her cosmos brooches from VC&A which I see here are going for $40K each. Possible she thought of them as four leaf clovers for luck. Totally guessing, though.

Among other things Camilla will be getting is QE's "Queen's Crown" with the Kohinoor slap in the front of it.

If you're new here, the Kohinoor was looted out of India during the British Empire days and Indian and Pakistan have been demanding it for years now.

It's in the Queen's crown because legend says any man wearing it will lose his throne.

And again for the new folks, we are completely about repatriation around here, especially repatriation to places willing and able to take proper care of them.

The Lahore diamond, 22ct, it's the pendant. Also looted.

It's called the Coronation Necklace, so probably coming to a Camilla near you, soon.

Just take the fucking drop off FFS, the rest is impressive enough.

One question I'm getting a lot, is 'what now?'

Well, it's hard to say. Traditionally, the entirety of the Royal Collection belonged to the monarch, and the spouse was allowed to use whatever jewels they saw fit.

But when Elizabeth took over, she was the first Queen since Victoria, and she had full control over everything.

She allowed her mother (dowager queen) and her sister to borrow whatever. But for most of her life, that was it. Just them.

(Although Margaret bought herself the Poltimore Tiara before she got married, and her family sold it after she passed on.)

At one point, someone was wringing their hands over the Queen Mum having a bunch of Royal Collection jewelry, including the Oriental Circlet, the only ruby tiara at the time.

QE famously said "Mummy will give it back" and she did, in her will.

One of the pieces that Mummy returned was a gift that QE had made for her, for her hundredth birthday. It's a painting of a rose named after her, surrounded by 100 diamonds.

After she passed on, QE wore it fairly often, usually to events that revolved around WW2, in which Mummy played a major role in keeping morale up.

So basically, any gifts received by any royals go into the Collection, to be doled back out by QE, we think. There isn't a whole lot of transparency.

Which is how Meghan wound up wearing those loaner earrings.

With Charles inheriting everything lock stock and barrel, I assume he's going to turn Camilla loose in the Vault, as he'd watched with his mother, aunt, and grandmother for decades. And the sky's the limit.

Camilla will have the option of loaning out to other family members, particularly Kate, and we'll have to wait and see how that goes, but they're reported to be very friendly.

Now, for jewel hounds such as myself, there's another wish-in-the-dark that looms on these occasions.

We'd love to see an inventory of the Vault. I wouldn't even need pictures.

So many iffy inheritances - to QE and her mother - have been dumped in. The Greville Bequest is notorious, because supposedly we've only seen a tiny fraction of it, and the stuff we have seen is spectacular.

The provenance on these is bulletproof - Boucheron still has the receipt for the emerald tiara on file - but I assume haven't been worn due to conspicuous consumption.

Then, there's all the stuff I suspect Mary bought or swiped, and chucked in there for the heat to die down. Including buying jewelry off all her Russian relatives after the revolution.

I'd always suspected - she was Europe's richest jewel nerd, of course you'd go to her to sell - that there was a lot of Russian swag in the Vault.

Then the whole thing with Meghan wanting an emerald tiara with iffy Russian provenance hit the news.

Everyone wants to frame it as Eug and Meghan fighting over that tiara of Eug's, but that wasn't a Russian tiara. It was French.

So... not confirmation exactly, but a whole lot of different threads lead to Russian goodies in the Vault.

And then there's stuff like the Florentine Diamond, that went missing in WW2 and again, you have a giant rock, who do you sell it to?

Queen Mary. Who thinks in generations and would love knowing Eug wore that tiara.

130+ carats.

So, a few of QE's favorite brooches and I don't think there's anything else to add, really.

One she wore a lot was from Phillip, and was a really modern piece. Many thought it odd, but word was, she liked modern design and was stuck with all the stuff she inherited.

She was always very matchy-matchy with her jewels and clothes, and wasn't terribly original with the way she wore them. (Compared to her mother putting brooches on hats and so forth.) (And MARY.)

This was designed by Queen Mary, holds a chunk of the Cullinan, and was a go-to.

The Jardin Star brooch is another that she wore a lot, and I don't think provenance has ever been nailed down.

A newer piece she wore a lot was from Singapore, from her last Jubbly.

She always wore gift brooches when meeting with people from the country who gave the brooch, but once in a while she'd keep one in regular rotation. I assume because she liked it.

Bow brooches were always a thing with her, either to hold up some poppies or just because.

This is one of the oldest pieces in the Royal Collection and goes back to Victoria.

Oh my god, news outlets are coming out with brooch retrospectives now.

Another favorite was the Albert Brooch, originally designed by him and given to Victoria as a wedding gift.

Interesting graphic of what everything is worth, consider me VERY skeptical.

The Williamson Diamond brooch is a floral brooch with a significant pink diamond in the middle.

She wore it with pink clothes so you didn't notice the color. 🙄

One that apparently never got old, was the flower basket brooch, a gift to her after Charles was born, from her parents.

One thing, people are speculating what she'll be buried with in terms of jewelry.

I think only her wedding rings. They normally don't do much else.

Personally, though? I hope they bury her with her military service ribbons.

Going to leave this for now, may add more as it occurs later.

Found an image I hadn't seen before, QE in WW2, working as a mechanic to support the war effort. Her dad was against it but of course the people were very pleased with their future Queen.