ROYAL JEWELS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1935, Page 2

ROYAL JEWELS

QUEEN FAVOURS EMERALDS. HIS MAJESTY’S STATE CROWN. During the King’s Silver Jubilee celebrations many people were able to admire the priceless jewels worn by the Queen. At the State' banquet, for instance, Her Majesty displayed some of the choicest gems from her collection of diamonds. She wore a diamond-fring-ed tiara, around her neck were rows of perfectly-matched white stones, and glittering on her corsage was the famous Indian diamond known as the Koh-i-noor.

But the Queen’s favourite stone is not the diamond. It is the emerald, and whenever possible Her -Majesty likes to wear a set of lustrous green stones that was acquired by her grandmother. In all the Queen has seven tiaras of this type, and she keeps them all in a safe, which, to all outward appearances is a Chinese' cabinet intended for the housing of bric-a-brac. Then there are the magnificent Hanoverian pearls which have adorned several Royal personages. Mary Queen of Scots once wore some ol these peal Is, which on her death were purchased by Queen Elizabeth for the comparatively insignificant sum of £3OOO. l o-dav thej arc worth several times that amount. Less valuable intrinsically, but ti eft fibred even moue by the Queen, is a pair of ear-rings in which are inset exquisite portrait medallions lof Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose. Another pair of ear-rings dates back to Tudor days, having been made ioi Queen Elizabeth. But the most famous of the Queen’s jewels is, of course, the Koh-i-nooi,. Thi stone was taken from India to Persia 200 years ago, but subsequently belonged to Runjeet Singh, Maharajah of Lahore and Kashmir during the first part of the 18th century. From him it passed into the hands ol the East India Company, and was presented by the governors to Queen V ictoria to commemorate the annexation of the Punjab in 1849.

In its original state the Koh-i-noor weighed nearly 900 carats, but through bad' cutting it was reduced to only 103 carats. 'The name means “Mountain of Light.”

The Imperial State Crown that is worn by the King on ceremonial occasions is encrusted with 3000 diamonds, sapphires and pearls. On the front is embedded a flashing red stone which belonged to. the Black Prince., This gem is about the size of a pigeon’s egg. Tt is generally referred to as a ruby, hut :*rtiially it is a far less precious stone, being a red spinel. The value of the Black Prince’s jewel is infinitesimal in comparison with that of the Cullinan diamond, which was presented to King Edward VII, in' 1907 by the Government of South Africa. Discovered in the Premier mine, near Pretoria, in January. 1905, the Cullinan stone is the biggest diamond ever Excavated, being three times as large as' it -nearest' rival. It is four inches long mind wbighs 3030 carats.