Editor’s Note
**Editor’s Note:** This piece explores the personal and symbolic stories behind Queen Camilla’s everyday jewellery, highlighting how her cherished pieces—from family heirlooms to gifts from King Charles—serve as quiet tributes to Queen Elizabeth II and her own enduring causes.
Queen Camilla’s jewellery collection goes far beyond the showstopping tiaras we see at royal banquets. Inside Queen Camilla’s jewellery collection: the Queen’s most treasured everyday pieces feature a touching tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. Jewellery’s most treasured pieces of jewellery have their own fascinating story to tell, ranging from touching family memories to gifts from her husband, the King, and symbols of her most treasured causes. As Queen Camilla celebrates her birthday – here are some of her go-to jewels…
Before Camilla was Queen, she was a beloved grandmother of five. It is fitting, then, that one of her most treasured pieces of jewellery is a necklace paying tribute to the grandchildren from her first marriage, to Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles. Queen Camilla is grandmother to two granddaughters and three grandsons, born to her two children, Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes. The pendant features the five letters of her grandchildren: ‘L’, ‘F’, ‘G’, ‘L’ and ‘E’ for Lola, Freddy, Gus, Eliza and Louis. On the flip side of the pendant is a ruby, the Queen’s birthstone – another personal nod. Queen Camilla has worn the necklace on a number of occasions, including on her first outing with King Charles following his cancer diagnosis and her historic visit to the Vatican last year.
This piece is not from Queen Camilla’s personal collection, but is nonetheless a deeply poignant piece of jewellery. The jewel, which is called the ‘raspberry pip’ brooch, was never worn publicly by the late Queen and has only been seen on Camilla once before. Designed in the shape of a Georgian cross, the brooch is thought to be set with topaz and diamonds. So named because of its resemblance to the tiny structure of a raspberry seed, this ruby-toned piece was originally gifted in 1881 to Cecilia Nina Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Camilla’s great-grandmother-in-law by marriage.
Queen Camilla visits the Sandringham Flower Show in July 2023, armed with her beloved Alhambra bracelet. The Queen is an avid collector of pieces from Van Cleef and Arpels, especially the house’s Alhambra collection. Her Majesty is rarely seen without her bracelet from the line, which is said to embody a lucky energy and dates back to 1968. Made of blue agate and gold, the bracelet’s provenance is not known, but considering just how often Queen Camilla wears it, the piece must be a treasured favourite. Camilla also owns other pieces from the collection, including three diamond earrings in the Alhambra motif and a pair of green malachite earrings, which she wore to honour British winners at the Oscars in 2016. Kate Middleton is also a fan of the collection, stepping out in a necklace adorned with the motif at a number of events, including the Coronation concert in 2023. Further afield, royals including Princess Caroline of Monaco and her daughter, Charlotte Casiraghi, have also been seen wearing pieces from the much-loved line.
The Queen owns an impressive number of lucky animals brooches from Van Cleef and Arpels. The Queen is known to have at least six brooches from Van Cleef & Arpels’ ‘Lucky Animals’ collection, which was launched in 2017. An avid dog lover, she often wears the canine version of the brooch when supporting the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Camilla’s collection also includes a malachite and lapis lazuli hummingbird, which she wore on an engagement at the Royal Marsden in 2020; a rabbit and a hedgehog, which made an outing for World Book Day celebrations later that March; a squirrel brooch that the Queen wore for a reading of James and the Giant Peach. Queen Camilla has also picked out the owl brooch to decorate the Clarence House Christmas tree in December 2021 and a dove brooch for a meeting with the S.T.O.R.M family centre in 2023. Touchingly, it seems as though the Queen wears the collection when working with young people.
