Queen Elizabeth II’s sapphire and diamond bracelet is displayed as part of the Cartier exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, April 2025 (© Lauren Kiehna)
September is the month for sapphires, and we’re beginning our celebration of the royal blue gemstone with a look at a sentimental sapphire bracelet, made by Cartier, that belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Members of the British royal family gather for an official portrait on the 18th birthday of Princess Elizabeth, April 1944 (PA Images/Alamy)
The bracelet’s royal story begins on April 21, 1944: the eighteenth birthday of Princess Elizabeth, the elder daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The future monarch was surrounded by her family on her birthday. The official portrait above shows that Elizabeth and her parents were joined on her birthday by her younger sister, Princess Margaret; her grandmother, Queen Mary; and her aunts and uncles, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duchess of Kent, and the Princess Royal and the Earl of Harewood. Elizabeth is proudly wearing her Grenadier Guards badge in the picture.
There’s a long-standing tradition of giving princesses special bejeweled presents, often their first pieces of important gala jewelry, on their eighteenth birthdays. That was made more difficult in 1944, with the war still raging on. On April 11, 1944, shortly before the birthday celebrations, Queen Elizabeth wrote to Queen Mary, noting, “I am giving Lilibet a small diamond tiara of my own for her 18th birthday, & Bertie [George VI] is giving her a little bracelet to wear now. It is almost impossible to buy anything good, but he may find something secondhand.”
Princess Elizabeth (holding Princess Anne) is photographed during the christening of the baby princess at Buckingham Palace in London on October 21, 1950 (SuperStock/Alamy)
The “small diamond tiara” mentioned by Elizabeth was the Cartier Halo Tiara, and the “something secondhand” that King George VI eventually found was a pair of aquamarine and diamond clips. Also made by Cartier, the brooches had originally been in the collection of his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Kent. The “little bracelet” that the king had already acquired to give to his daughter was yet another Cartier piece. The platinum jewel, set with diamonds and sapphires, was made around 1935. It features two linked diamond sections, each studded with five bright blue sapphires.
Princess Elizabeth (holding Princess Anne), Princess Margaret, and King George VI are photographed during the christening of the baby princess at Buckingham Palace in London on October 21, 1950 (SuperStock/Alamy)
The young Elizabeth could be spotted wearing the bracelet occasionally during the decade that followed, especially for moments of elevated importance during the day. Perhaps the most prominent of these was the christening of her daughter, Princess Anne, at Buckingham Palace in the autumn of 1950. In this photograph, which shows Elizabeth holding the baby princess, and the baby princess holding the King’s hand, you’ll be able to spot the sapphire and diamond bracelet worn over the glove on Elizabeth’s right wrist.
Queen Elizabeth II is pictured in Melbourne during the Commonwealth Tour of Australia, March 1954 (SuperStock/Alamy)
Elizabeth continued to wear the bracelet after her father’s death in 1952. Now Queen Elizabeth II, she packed it in her luggage for her coronation tour of the Commonwealth, a trip that spanned the last months of 1953 and the first months of 1954. In the photograph above, taken in Melbourne in March 1954, she once again wears the bracelet over her glove on her right wrist. She’s also wearing another significant sapphire and diamond jewel here: the chrysanthemum brooch that she received when she launched an oil tanker, the British Princess, in 1946.
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attend the Horse of the Year Show in London, October 1956 (PA Images/Alamy)
In this picture, taken two years later in October 1956, Elizabeth wears the bracelet as she attends the Horse of the Year Show with Prince Philip in London. She’s also wearing a pearl and diamond choker necklace with a sapphire cluster clasp. The necklace originally belonged to Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia. It was acquired by Queen Mary, and it is now worn by Elizabeth and Philip’s daughter, the Princess Royal.
Queen Elizabeth II’s sapphire and diamond bracelet is displayed as part of the Cartier exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, April 2025 (© Lauren Kiehna)
As the years went on, sightings of the sapphire and diamond bracelet became fewer and farther between. But if you’d like to see it for yourself in person right now, you’re in luck. King Charles III has loaned the bracelet to the Cartier exhibition currently running at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The bracelet will be on public display at the museum through November.