A Gift from Brazil: Queen Elizabeth II’s Brazilian Aquamarine Parure Tiara

Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Brazilian Aquamarine Parure Tiara. Image from Wikimedia  Commons

In 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place. Floods of precious gifts were showered upon her, including a diamond necklace with very large aquamarines and matching earrings, the gift of the president and the people of Brazil to the new British sovereign.

The set was made by Rio de Janeiro’s Mappin & Webb, and it consisted of a necklace and matching pendant earrings comprised of multiple oblong Brazilian aquamarine set in diamond and platinum. The necklace contains nine large oblong aquamarine stones with a larger drop pendant. Interestingly, additional perfectly matched pieces of aquamarine continued to be collected within Brazil, which, in 1958, were given to The Queen in the form of a similarly designed bracelet and brooch to add to her existing set.

The Brazilian Aquamarine Parure Tiara. Image from Tiaramania

To complete the set, the Queen commissioned jeweller Garrard to create a tiara, a wonderful creation with an aquamarine as a focal point that exceeded all other stones of this set.  The tiara originally consisted of a bandeau with 3 upright aquamarines. Later it was augmented to its present form. When first made in 1957, the tiara had three upright rectangular stones, which could be detached and worn as brooches or mounted on a simple platinum band.

Queen Elizabeth II wearing the original Brazilian aquamarine tiara in the 1950s. Image from Pinterest

In 1971, the tiara was adapted and redesigned to take four scroll ornaments from an aquamarine and diamond jewel given to The Queen by the Governor of São Paulo in 1968. In the book The Queen’s Jewels, Leslie Field explained further that the jewel was also described at the time as a "v-shaped ‘hair ornament’”. The Queen eventually replaced the central aquamarine upright on the tiara with the large aquamarine pendant which used to hang on the necklace. The necklace pendant was replaced with a smaller stone. One of the Queen’s most popular jewels, the Brazilian Aquamarine Parure Tiara was last worn in 2011 when the Queen visited Australia.