As to one observer, royal watchers should not anticipate Queen Elizabeth to be laid to rest with any of the royal family’s treasured antiques. Rather, the Queen will most likely be buried wearing only two treasured pieces of jewelry in order to preserve the remainder of her huge collection.
Lisa Levinson, the Natural Diamond Council’s head of communications, thinks the Queen will just wear her “simple Welsh gold wedding band and a set of pearl earrings.”
Lisa, who described the Queen as “modest,” believes Elizabeth would have preferred it this way in order to safeguard her legendary 300-piece jewelry collection.
When Prince Philip proposed to the Queen, he had an engagement ring made with diamonds from his mother’s tiara, Princess Alice of Battenberg. Lisa believes this family heirloom will be passed down to the couple’s only daughter, Princess Anne.
That must be significant to Anne, who has lost both of her parents in the last 17 months.
Lisa believes the surviving royal jewels will remain in the family’s ownership since the Queen “has always been about the heritage of the royal family, in the UK and the Commonwealth,” and the royal jewels are “very much part of that history.”
The Queen’s secret collection includes 98 brooches, 34 sets of earrings, and 15 rings. They are stored at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace when not in use.
However, the famed Crown Jewels are stored at the Tower of London. That collection, believe it or not, outnumbers the Queen’s own vault and comprises an estimated 23,000 diamonds, sapphires, and rubies.
The United Kingdom and, perhaps, the majority of the rest of the globe is in grief following the monarch’s death on September 8. Since the Queen’s death, King Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry, and their wives have attended a number of memorial services.
After a lengthy time of lying-in-state at Westminster Hall, Elizabeth’s last service is planned to take place on September 19.
