Queen Elizabeth II wears her Australian Hibiscus Royal Brooch at the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey in London on March 12, 2018 (Photo by Mark Cuthbert)
Queen Elizabeth II’s Australian Hibiscus Royal Brooch was inherited by the sovereign from the other brooch lover in the royal family, her mother. Amazingly it’s the second brooch featuring Australian flora and fauna in the Queen’s extensive collection, joining the Australian Wattle Royal Brooch that the monarch was given during her Coronation tour of the realm in 1954.
Given to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Canberra by the government and the people of Australia, she said, “How beautiful, how very beautiful,” while pinning it to her outfit, according to royal jewellery author Leslie Field. It was February 1958 and she was in the midst of a hugely successful tour of Australia, her first since going there as Duchess of York in 1927 with the future King George VI.
The Age (Feb. 17, 1958, Canberra, Australia)
ROYAL BROOCH COMPOSITION
“A 3 1/2-inch-long, three-dimensional hibiscus flower set with 346 flawless diamonds and thirty-four Burmese rubies,” is how Leslie Field describes it in The Queen’s Jewels. (p. 138) That description echoes the one from the Feb. 16, 1958 issue of the Sydney Morning Herald, which also stated “its value is unofficially estimated at more than £5,000.”
CREATION
Unfortunately, the articles are mute as to who made the brooch.
PROVENANCE
“Smiling happily, the Queen Mother was wearing the diamond and ruby brooch presented to her by the Australian people when she arrived at St. John the Baptist’s Church, Canberra, for morning service yesterday. The brooch was presented to Her Majesty during a Cabinet dinner on Saturday night,” stated the Age newspaper from Melbourne on Monday, Feb. 17, 1958. The note accompanied a large photo of the queen Mother wearing the brooch. Another article, this time on the front page, repeated the information, adding that it was presented by then-prime minister Robert Menzies at a ministerial dinner at Government House.
It also revealed that the timing of the gift was deliberate. “The presentation of the brooch to the Queen Mother was expressly made last night, instead of during the State ball in Canberra on February 26, because she had said she would like the people to see her wearing it on her visits to Queensland and New South Wales,” wrote the Age. “As the Queen Mother pinned the brooch to her dress, she said gaily, ‘I will wear it everywhere.’ ”
“It was presented to the Queen Mother in the drawing room of Government House just before the 56 guests sat down to dinner. The guests, who included all cabinet ministers and their wives, were drawn up in a horseshoe-shaped line with the Queen Mother entered the drawing room,” wrote the Sydney Morning Herald on Feb. 16, 1958. “Mr. Menzies made a short speech in presenting the brooch and the Queen Mother thanked him for Australian’s generous gift,”
That first outing for the brooch on Sunday was also the most humid of the summer, with nine people overcome by the heat and crush of the crowds waiting to see the Queen Mother at church. The crowds, the Sydney Morning Herald wrote, “were far bigger than those at the royal tour of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh three years ago.”
Australian Hibiscus Royal Brooch (close-up photo by Mark Cuthbert)
WORN
The brooch was one of the Queen Mother’s favourites, especially at Australian-related events. “In perhaps the most Aussie-themed photo of the Queen Mum ever taken, she wears the brooch while cradling a koala during her 1958 visit,” Ella Kay wrote on her Crown Jeweller website.
The Australian Hibiscus Royal Brooch stayed in the Queen’s jewellery vault for four years after she inherited it upon her mother’s death in 2002. Then, in December 2006, the Queen pinned it to her thick red coat for an important event: inspecting more than 220 officers graduating from the Sandhurst military academy, including her grandson Prince William.
Its densely packed diamonds and rubies make it a showstopper, especially on solid coloured coats and dresses. And so it’s no surprise that its present owner wears it most often on pink- or red-hued outfits.
In March 2018, the Queen let her royal brooch to shine against her deep plum coat for the annual Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey.
