Editor’s Note
This article highlights the Platinum Jubilee exhibition at Buckingham Palace, featuring Queen Elizabeth II’s most iconic jewels and rare youth portraits, opening July 22 to mark her 70-year reign.
Queen Elizabeth II shows the world her most imposing jewels and unseen youth portraits in an exhibition.
To mark her 70 years on the throne, Buckingham Palace is displaying a series of the Queen’s personal items from this Friday, July 22.
Maite Torrente
Published: 22 July 2022, 11:03h
The Platinum Jubilee celebrations continue with one of the most special tributes ever paid to the British sovereign, which everyone can see in person. On Friday, July 22, the exhibition opens its doors, showcasing the official portraits of a young Queen Elizabeth II (96 years old) and her most spectacular jewels. Titled “The Queen’s Accession,” it is housed in the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace and will be open to the public until October 2, with tickets priced at €35.20.
Through photographs taken by Dorothy Wilding, the first woman commissioned to photograph royalty, one can admire the incredible beauty of the longest-reigning monarch to date. She has a certain Hollywood air, always exquisitely coiffed with her water waves and elegant updos, upon which she wears the crown she has been sporting for 70 years.
The first portrait was taken in 1952, just days after Lilibet, as her family always called her, assumed the role of head of state at age 25. For her debut in official portraits, she chose a boat-neck evening gown by Norman Hartnell, who was her longtime court couturier. Above it, the insignia of the Order of the Garter.
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This is one of the images that opens the exhibition, and alongside it, the jewels that Queen Elizabeth II wears in it are displayed. First, the diamond diadem created for the coronation of King George IV in 1821, with 1,333 brilliant-cut diamonds and pearl borders with four crosses. The impressive diamond necklace stands out, which was given to the then Princess Elizabeth as a wedding gift in 1947 by the ruler of Hyderabad. Queen Elizabeth II has continued to wear it on many occasions during her reign and has also lent it to the Duchess of Cambridge. As for the diamond bracelet, it was a wedding gift from the Duke of Edinburgh.
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Other imposing jewelry pieces are also exhibited, such as The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, which was a wedding gift for Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, later Queen Mary, on the occasion of her marriage to the future King George V in 1893. It later passed into the hands of the mother of Charles of England (73) and is very special to her because she wore it at her wedding to Prince Philip on November 20, 1947.
The portraits, mostly in black and white, recall the sovereign’s youth years, and in them one can admire not only her most regal side but also some less formal images, without a crown, showcasing an impeccable style according to the trends of the time. Queen Elizabeth II has always had porcelain skin and has taken great care of herself (and still does): she never leaves home without sun protection and uses hats to protect her skin from the sun, maintains a balanced diet, and her favorite moisturizer is from a British brand, Cyclas, called ‘Milk of Roses’.
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