This gold-set brooch is made up of a cushion-cut diamond set on an angle, with a deep blue sapphire similarly positioned below (or next to) it. Both stones are enclosed on three sides by a border of smaller brilliant diamonds. A small diamond scroll curls from each stone, one down and one up.
The brooch was given to Queen Mary as a wedding gift in 1893. It came from her mother-in-law’s sister, Marie Feodorovna of Russia, hence the name.
The sapphire and diamond brooch as it appears in The Queen’s Jewels by Leslie Fields
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Queen Mary acquired more of Marie’s jewels after the Russian Revolution of 1919, and The Queen came to be in possession of this brooch, along with many other pieces of Mary’s, on her grandmother’s death in 1953.
Mostly we see this brooch on blue outfits, but we have seen it on a yellow coat in the past, providing a lovely contrast for the piece to shine.
While The Queen wears the piece vertically, Queen Mary has worn it as a neck pin horizontally, shown on this page in Leslie Fields’ book, The Queen’s Jewels.
