Royal Treasures: The Intriguing Histories of Queen Elizabeth II’s Brooches –  Hw

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to my channel. I’m thrilled to see the positive feedback from my last video on Queen Elizabeth II’s brooches. Because of your wonderful response, I decided to create a continuation. In this video, we will delve into more fascinating brooches from the late Queen’s collection. We’ll explore unique pieces like the exquisite Diamond and Sapphire Grapes Brooch and the beautiful Saskatchewan Tourmaline Brooch.

Additionally, we’ll look at the historic 11 Pearl Brooch, an heirloom of the Crown dating back to Queen Victoria, and the elegant brooch with the national symbol of Wales, the Diamond Daffodil Brooch. Each brooch not only adds to the Queen’s regal appearance but also carries its own story and significance.

So, let’s dive into the world of these magnificent jewels. Before we begin, please support my channel by clicking the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you! The Australian Wattle Brooch is a significant piece in Queen Elizabeth II’s collection, symbolizing both national pride and natural beauty. Crafted by the Australian firm William Drummond, the brooch is made of platinum and adorned with white and yellow diamonds, designed to represent Australia’s national flower, the wattle.

The brooch was commissioned as a gift for the new monarch and was presented to Queen Elizabeth II by Prime Minister Robert Menzies during a state banquet in Canberra in February 1954, during her Commonwealth tour. Shortly after receiving it, she wore the brooch in Melbourne. This exquisite floral design made the brooch a favorite for springtime occasions.

For instance, in May 1960, the Queen wore it during her annual visit to the Chelsea Flower Show. The brooch also featured prominently at the Royal Maundy service multiple times, including in 2002 at Canterbury Cathedral and in Windsor in April 2019. The brooch was chosen for several significant events, such as the wedding of her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, to the Duchess of Cornwall in April 2005.

In the United Kingdom, the brooch was often seen at events related to Australia and the Commonwealth. For example, the Queen wore it during an audience with Australian Prime Minister John Howard at Buckingham Palace in November 2003 and for the annual Commonwealth Day Service in London in March 2017. The Bird of Paradise Jubilee Brooch is a stunning piece that embodies the essence of summertime with its gold, diamonds, and floral design.

This intricate brooch was a Diamond Jubilee gift to Queen Elizabeth II from the government of Singapore in 2012. Crafted by Singapore-based jeweler Thomis Kwan, the brooch is made of yellow gold and set with 61 diamonds. Interestingly, it was not a commissioned piece but a stock item from Kwan’s firm, purchased by an official from Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who later discovered its regal destination.

The design of the brooch is inspired by the bird of paradise plant, scientifically named “Strelitzia reginae”, a name honoring Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II. Despite its large circumference, the brooch lays flat against the Queen’s coats, jackets, and dresses, making it a versatile accessory.

Over the years, the brooch has become one of the Queen’s favorites, often paired with brightly colored outfits. For example, she wore it with a sunny yellow jacket and hat at the Epsom Derby in May 2017, and with a lime green ensemble during the first day of Royal Ascot in June 2017. In March 2019, the brooch complemented a vibrant orange coat and hat during a visit to the Science Museum in London.

The Braemar Feather Brooch. For her Golden Jubilee in 2002, Queen Elizabeth II was presented with this brooch from the Braemar Royal Highland Society. Made from platinum, white gold, and 24 carat gold on silver in the shape of an eagle’s feather, it features a Jubilee stamp on the back. Since receiving it, the Queen wore this brooch annually at the Braemar Highland Games, making it a recognizable and cherished accessory.

The brooch is typically worn vertically and stands out against the vibrant colors of her jackets. For example, in 2007, the Queen wore it with a bright green coat, highlighting the brooch’s mixed metals. In 2013, she paired it with a pale pink tweed outfit, allowing the brooch’s intricate design to shine.

The Queen’s Bouquet Brooch, known for its delicate yet dramatic design, is a stunning piece featuring a spray of diamond and ruby blooms held together with a sparkling bow. This rare brooch was inherited by Queen Elizabeth II from her mother in 2002. The Queen Mother wore it in her later years as part of a set with other royal ruby pieces.

Since its inheritance, the brooch has been seen in public only a handful of times, typically at significant diplomatic functions or family holiday events, often paired with outfits in rosy tones. The Queen first wore the brooch publicly in 2008 at the Royal Maundy Service in Armagh, where it complemented her smart red jacket.

In 2014, during a state visit to France, the brooch was prominently displayed against the scarlet sash of the Legion of Honour at a banquet at the Élysée Palace. It was accompanied by one of the Queen’s favorite royal jewels, the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara. The following year, the brooch’s rubies perfectly matched a white tweed jacket flecked with coral ribbon that the Queen wore to a garden reception in Berlin.

The brooch made another appearance at the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham in 2019, where it was paired with a regal red jacket and hat. In 2021, the Queen wore the brooch during her visit to Manchester’s MediaCity, where it provided a striking contrast to a teal outfit designed by her dressmaker, Angela Kelly.

The Modern Ruby and Diamond Spray Brooch is a remarkable piece in Queen Elizabeth II’s collection, with an unknown origin but a design that dates back to the mid-20th century. This brooch features a gold setting adorned with diamonds and a slender row of rubies, embodying a sophisticated and timeless design.

Queen Elizabeth II wore it at notable events in the past century, including a luncheon with Chancellor Ludwig Erhard in 1965, a visit by Sheikh Zayed in 1969, and a state visit to France in 1972. The brooch also appeared during her 1988 Australia tour and a 1995 visit to Belfast. The brooch was also worn during the Diamond Jubilee festivities in April 2012 for a walkabout in Windsor and in February 2020 during a visit to Thames House, MI5’s headquarters, paired with a burgundy outfit.

For this visit, she paired the brooch with a burgundy outfit with floral touches and wore the brooch with the spray facing upward, as she typically does. Queen Mary’s Turquoise Brooch. The turquoise brooch, a diamond and turquoise piece from the nineteenth century, holds a rich history. It was given as a wedding gift to Queen Mary by her parents-in-law, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

Queen Elizabeth II began wearing this brooch in the last years of her reign, notably around 2015. Queen Elizabeth II wore this brooch on several significant occasions. One of its notable appearances was during her address to the nation and the world in April 2020 from Windsor Castle amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In her speech, she thanked essential workers and encouraged resilience in the face of the crisis. The brooch, with its long family history, was chosen for its innocuous yet regal presence. There was much speculation about the brooch’s hidden meaning, but the Queen selected it simply as a piece of jewelry. The true significance lay in her words, not in her clothing or jewelry.

The Queen’s Diamond Daffodil Brooch is a modern jewel designed to resemble a spray of yellow daffodils, a flower that is the national symbol of Wales. This unique brooch is part of Queen Elizabeth II’s extensive collection of floral-themed jewelry. The brooch first came into public view in a portrait of the Queen painted for the Welsh Rugby Union by Welsh artist Dan Llywelyn Hall.

The painting, unveiled in May 2013 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. She sat for the painting at Windsor Castle in November 2012. The first formal outing for the brooch was in 2014, when Queen Elizabeth II wore it during engagements in Essex. The brooch was prominently displayed on her tweedy coat during a visit to Chelmsford Cathedral to celebrate the centenary of the diocese.

Some jewelry enthusiasts believe that the daffodil and shamrock brooches are part of a set presented to the Queen by the Sultan of Oman as a Diamond Jubilee gift in 2012. This set is thought to include a thistle brooch and possibly a modern Tudor Rose Brooch as well. One of the brooch’s most recent appearances was during Royal Ascot in June 2019.

The Queen wore it for Ladies’ Day, pairing the brooch with a stunning yellow and gray ensemble featuring additional yellow flowers. The Saskatchewan Tourmaline Brooch is a beautiful piece of jewelry presented to Queen Elizabeth II by the Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan in October 2013. Crafted by Rachel Mielke of the Canadian jewelry firm Hillberg and Berk, the brooch is made of white gold and set with Madagascar tourmalines, diamonds, and a single freshwater pearl.

The design features a floral motif with geometric edges, giving it a fresh and contemporary feel. Queen Elizabeth II was visibly delighted upon receiving the brooch, reportedly gasping when she saw the gift. She quickly integrated it into her regular brooch rotation, wearing it publicly for the first time in Norfolk in February 2014.

One notable appearance of the brooch was at Royal Ascot in 2014, where it complemented the Queen’s wardrobe, which often includes shades of pink. The brooch’s colors shift depending on the lighting, adding to its charm and versatility. The Sapphire And Diamond Grapes Brooch. Although little is known about this charming brooch, it is known to have come from the collection of The Queen Mother and was inherited by Queen Elizabeth II after her mother passed away in 2002.

The Queen was often seen wearing it on royal blue jackets. The stunning brooch depicts a cluster of grapes, with each grape represented by a diamond. The diamond stems are tied together with a sapphire bow. The sapphires appear to be old-cut stones of the highest quality, set above 16 remarkable diamonds.

The brooch made its public debut in June 2006 when the Queen wore it on the first day of Royal Ascot, an event long associated with her mother. The brooch was last seen in late April 2022, when the Queen wore it during an audience with Swiss President Ignazio Cassis and his wife, Paola Cassis, at Windsor Castle.

The Pearl Brooch of Queen Victoria, known as the 11 Pearl Brooch, is a significant piece in the royal collection. This brooch features eleven large pearls, eight set in an elaborate diamond arrangement, with three more pearls hanging as pendants. Queen Victoria designated this brooch as an heirloom of the Crown upon her death in 1901.

Queen Victoria was pictured with a brooch of 11 pearls only a couple of times. However, it became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who retained it after her husband’s death and her daughter’s accession to the throne. The Queen Mother wore the brooch well into her old age, including during some of her last birthday celebrations and her final Easter service.

After the Queen Mother’s death, the brooch began to be worn by Queen Elizabeth II. The brooch was publicly debuted by Queen Elizabeth II during her 2009 Christmas Broadcast. Since then, it has been worn on numerous occasions, including the 2016 Christmas Speech. The late Queen wore Queen Victoria’s 11 Pearl Brooch for her final portrait, which was made by artist Basia Hamilton at Windsor Castle on May 6, 2022.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey through some of the exquisite brooches from Queen Elizabeth II’s collection. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel for more content on royal jewelry and history. And if you haven’t seen the first part of this series, where I showcased 10 lesser-known brooches from the Queen’s collection, be sure to check it out.

QQ4 Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have been close friends for nearly 40 years. The friendship began on a live television program in November of 1986 in the 11 seconds after Bob Dylan called Keith Richards music derivative on camera. Keith Richard’s response to that assessment, one sentence said without anger, without performance, with the specific directness of a man who has nothing to prove and knows it made Bob Dylan laugh.

Then made Bob Dylan go quiet. then made Bob Dylan say two words that people who know Bob Dylan say he almost never said to anyone. This is the story of those 11 seconds and the 40 years that followed them. The program was a live music interview special broadcast on an American network on the evening of November 3rd, 1986. The format was simple.

Two musicians, a host, an hour of conversation about music and the state of it. The producers had assembled the pairing of Bob Dylan and Keith Richards with the specific calculation of television producers who understand that two people with equally strong and potentially incompatible views about what music is and what it should do will produce better television than two people who agree about everything.

The calculation was correct, though not in the way the producers had anticipated. Bob Dylan was 45 years old in November of 1986. Bob Dylan had released Empire Burlesque the previous year and had been on the road for most of the intervening period as part of the True Confessions tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Bob Dylan was in November of 1986 in one of the most prolific and restless phases of a career that had consisted almost entirely of prolific and restless phases. A career that had moved through folk, rock, country, gospel, and back again, that had been declared finished at least six times by the music press, and at each time continued with the serene indifference of a river to the opinions of people standing on its banks.

Bob Dylan had been redefining what music could be. Since 1962, Bob Dylan had invented and reinvented himself so many times that reinvention had become his defining characteristic, not in the superficial sense of a performer changing costumes, but in the deeper sense of a musician who had never allowed his work to settle into a form that could be anticipated or categorized from the outside.

Bob Dylan understood influence and originality and the relationship between them better than almost anyone alive in 1986. Bob Dylan had spent 24 years thinking carefully and specifically about where music came from and where music was going and what it meant that those two things were always in constant conversation with each other.

Keith Richards was 42 years old in November of 1986. Keith Richards had been playing guitar professionally since 1962. Keith Richards had built a career on a foundation of American blues and rhythm and blues. A foundation that Keith Richards had studied with the systematic devotion of someone who understood that the tradition he was building on was not incidental to the music he was making, but essential to it.

that you could not understand what Keith Richards did without understanding where Keith Richards had come from and what Keith Richards had been listening to since he was a teenager in Dartford with American Import Records and a secondhand guitar and no teacher except the recordings themselves. Keith Richards had never pretended otherwise. Keith Richards had in fact spent considerable energy across his career making the lineage explicit, naming the artists, citing the recordings, insisting on the acknowledgement of influence that the mainstream music

industry had a long history of suppressing or ignoring or crediting to the wrong people. If anything, Keith Richards was more transparent about his sources than most musicians of his generation. Keith Richards had always said openly that the Rolling Stones came directly from the blues, that Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson and the specific tradition of the Mississippi Delta were not background influences, but foundational ones.

The music Keith Richards made was in direct and sustained conversation with that tradition, something Keith Richards considered not a limitation, but a responsibility and a form of respect. The interview had been running for 8 minutes when the host asked Bob Dylan about the current state of rock and roll.

Bob Dylan answered with the density and the indirection that characterized Bob Dylan’s responses to direct questions, turning the question over, approaching it from an unexpected angle, finding his way to what he actually thought through a series of observations that moved like a river rather than a road. Bob Dylan was not a straightforward interview subject.

Bob Dylan had been asked about rock and roll in hundreds of interviews across 24 years and had developed the habit of treating the question as an invitation to think out loud rather than a request for a prepared position. The producer Gerald Sherman said afterward that in the first 8 minutes of the interview, he had been slightly anxious, not because anything was going wrong, but because nothing was going anywhere in particular yet.

The interview had the feeling of two conversations happening simultaneously. Bob Dylan’s internal one and the external one visible to the cameras. And Gerald Sherman was not certain in those first eight minutes that the two conversations would converge into something. Bob Dylan talked about influence. Bob Dylan talked about originality.

Bob Dylan talked about the difference between music that absorbed a tradition and transformed it and music that absorbed a tradition and reproduced it. And then Bob Dylan made his assessment. And then Bob Dylan said with the precision of a man making a musical assessment rather than a personal judgment that the Rolling Stones work, and Bob Dylan was specific, naming Keith Richards as the guitarist whose approach he was discussing was derivative in a way that Bob Dylan found limiting.

Bob Dylan said it without hostility. Bob Dylan said it as a technical observation about the relationship between source material and the work that came from it. Bob Dylan said that Keith Richards played the blues the way the blues had already been played, rather than using the blues as a starting point for something that had not yet been played.

Keith Richards had been listening to this with the specific attention Keith Richards gave to things being said about music by people who knew music. Keith Richards did not interrupt. Keith Richards did not shift in his chair or display any of the visible signals of a person preparing a defensive response. Keith Richards listened to Bob Dylan’s complete observation all the way to its conclusion without interrupting and without displaying any visible signal of preparing a response.

Then Keith Richards said one sentence. The sentence was not a rebuttal. The sentence did not defend Keith Richards music or argue for its originality or challenge Bob Dylan’s characterization of what the blues meant in the context of rock and roll. The sentence was something else entirely, something that required a specific kind of confidence to say.

The confidence of a person who has spent long enough thinking about the same things as the person they are talking to that they can locate the exact point where their thinking diverges and say something useful about that point rather than simply defending their own position. The sentence acknowledged everything Bob Dylan had said, the assessment, the distinction Bob Dylan was drawing, the specific musical concern underlying the observation, and then turned it 90°.

Keith Richards took Bob Dylan’s own framework, the one Bob Dylan had used to analyze Keith Richards relationship to the blues tradition, and applied it back to Bob Dylan’s work with the same precision Bob Dylan had used to apply it to Keith Richards. Spare aimed. The sentence asked Bob Dylan something about Bob Dylan’s own music, about the relationship between Bob Dylan’s sources and Bob Dylan’s output that Bob Dylan had not been asked on television before.

The sentence did not attack. The sentence illuminated. Bob Dylan laughed. The laugh was not the polite laugh of someone responding to a joke. The laugh was the involuntary laugh of someone who has been genuinely surprised. The specific kind of surprise that a person of exceptional intelligence experiences when someone else’s intelligence exceeds their expectations.

Bob Dylan laughed for 4 seconds. Then Bob Dylan stopped laughing. Then Bob Dylan was quiet for 3 seconds in the way that Bob Dylan was quiet when Bob Dylan was thinking rather than performing thought. Then Bob Dylan said, “You’re right.” The producer in the booth, a man named Gerald Sherman, who had been working in television for 14 years, said afterward that in 14 years of live television production, he had never heard Bob Dylan say those two words in a public forum.

Gerald Sherman said he had worked with Bob Dylan on two previous occasions and had observed Bob Dylan in numerous other contexts and that you’re right was not a phrase that Bob Dylan deployed easily or often because Bob Dylan had spent 24 years being right about music in ways that other people eventually caught up with. And the experience of being right ahead of everyone else does not generally produce a man who says you’re right readily when someone else makes a point.

The host of the program, a journalist named Patricia Wells, who had been interviewing musicians for 12 years, said afterward that the 11 seconds between Bob Dylan’s assessment and Bob Dylan saying, “You’re right,” were the most extraordinary 11 seconds of television she had been present for. Patricia Wells said that what she witnessed in those 11 seconds was not a debate or a confrontation or a celebrity exchange of competing opinions.

Patricia Wells said what she witnessed was one musician recognizing another musician as an equal, which was in the specific context of Bob Dylan in 1986, not something that happened in public very often. The interview continued for another 42 minutes after those 11 seconds. The conversation between Bob Dylan and Keith Richards in the remaining 42 minutes was described by everyone who watched it as fundamentally different from the first 8 minutes.

The host, Patricia Wells, who had been conducting music interviews for 12 years and understood the difference between the performance of conversation and actual conversation, said that at approximately the 9-minute mark, something shifted in the studio. That the formal interview, architecture dissolved, and what replaced it was something less structured and more genuine.

Bob Dylan and Keith Richards talked about influence and originality and the blues and what it meant to build on a tradition without being consumed by it. They talked about specific recordings and specific musicians with the specificity of two people who had spent their entire adult lives thinking about these things and rarely found another person who had thought about them with equivalent care.

They talked about where music came from and where music was going and whether those two questions were actually one question or two. Patricia Wells said afterward that she had asked approximately four questions in the remaining 42 minutes because Bob Dylan and Keith Richards did not require questions. They required only a room and a camera and the shared understanding that what they were saying together was worth recording carefully.

She said it was the best interview she had ever conducted and that she had conducted the smallest part of it. After the program, Bob Dylan and Keith Richards were in the corridor outside the studio when the host Patricia Wells passed them. Patricia Wells said she did not stop because she did not want to interrupt.

She observed them for approximately 30 seconds from a distance. She said they were talking with the ease of people who had known each other for years rather than people who had met for the first time 2 hours earlier. She said that something had shifted between them during the broadcast that the broadcast had made permanent rather than temporary.

She continued down the corridor and did not look back. She said in her account of that evening that she had decided in that moment not to interrupt the conversation because some conversations are more valuable than any question a journalist might ask and that the conversation she had observed for 30 seconds in the corridor outside the studio was one of them.

She had been a music journalist for 12 years. She recognized the difference. Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have maintained their friendship across four decades. They have appeared together at various events, most significantly at the concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, where people who were present described them as inseparable for most of the evening, occupying the same corner of the backstage area and talking with the concentrated attention of people who only have a limited amount of time together and intend to use it

well. Bob Dylan has spoken about Keith Richards in interviews with the specific thoughtful care that Bob Dylan reserves for musicians whose work Bob Dylan considers genuinely important rather than merely culturally prominent. Keith Richards has spoken about Bob Dylan in similar terms with the specific respect of someone who recognizes in another person a commitment to music that goes deeper than career.

Neither Bob Dylan nor Keith Richards has made a public statement specifically about how the friendship began or about the November 1986 interview. Bob Dylan has not mentioned the 11 seconds. Keith Richards has not mentioned the sentence. The interview exists in the archive. The 11 seconds are there. The laugh is there. The two words are there.

What is also there for anyone who watches the interview from its beginning and pays attention to the shift that happens at the 9-minute mark is the specific moment when two people who thought they were appearing on a television program discovered they were actually talking to each other. What Keith Richards said in that one sentence has never been officially reported.

The people who were in the studio that evening, Gerald Sherman, Patricia Wells, the floor crew, the two camera operators, the makeup artist who was watching from the side of the set, have described the sentence in consistent terms. They have described its effect. They have described Bob Dylan’s laugh and Bob Dylan’s silence and Bob Dylan’s two words.

They have not repeated the sentence itself in the specific understanding that the sentence was said between two musicians on a television program and that its power resided in the specific context of that exchange and would not survive removal from it intact. What can be said is this. Keith Richards said something to Bob Dylan about Bob Dylan’s music that used Bob Dylan’s own observation about Keith Richards as its starting point and arrived somewhere that Bob Dylan had not anticipated.

Keith Richards turned Bob Dylan’s assessment 90° and showed Bob Dylan something about the music they had both spent their lives making that Bob Dylan recognized immediately as true. And Bob Dylan said, “You’re right.” Two words said by Bob Dylan in public on live television in 1986 to Keith Richards in response to a single sentence Keith Richards had said about music.

Two words that Gerald Sherman, who had worked with Bob Dylan on two previous occasions, said he had never heard Bob Dylan say in a public forum. Two words that Patricia Wells, who had been interviewing musicians for 12 years, said were the most significant two words she had heard in those 12 years. Not because of their content, but because of who said them and what it cost to say them and what it meant that Keith Richards had produced them in 11 seconds from a conversation that began with Bob Dylan calling Keith Richards’s music derivative. And Keith Richards and

Bob Dylan have been close friends for nearly 40 years. The sentence did its work in 11 seconds on the evening of November 3rd, 1986. The work has been ongoing ever since. If this story moved you, subscribe and leave a comment below. Have you ever said something to someone that turned a potential disagreement into an unexpected and lasting connection? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Share this with someone who needs to be reminded that the right sentence said at the right moment can completely change the entire direction of a relationship. Ring the notification bell for more untold stories about the extraordinary human beings behind music’s greatest legends.