A new official Canadian portrait of the Queen was unveiled this month. Taken by royal photographer Chris Jackson in March 2019, the picture sent royal commentators into a frenzy. Royally Obsessed podcast hosts Roberta Fiorito and Rachel Bowie discussed the details of the portrait.
Ms Fiorito told listeners: “My favourite thing about this is the tiara. I love the Queen in a tiara.
“I just feel like we haven’t seen her in a tiara for so long.
“It just feels so right. It was the Belgian Sapphire Tiara.
“She also wore a necklace and earrings given to her by her father, King George VI.”
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Ms Bowie added: “And, in a connection to Canada, she also wore that jewellery on a royal tour there in 1990.
“But I love that it was a wedding gift from her dad.
“We all know she was really close to him.
“She really did look incredible.”
The tiara used in the portrait is also known as the ‘Victorian Sapphire Tiara’ and the ‘George VI Sapphire Tiara’.
The Queen received the suite of sapphires from her father as a wedding present in 1947.
It consists of a necklace and earrings, later supplemented by a bracelet and ring.
The pieces were a century old, made around 1850.
Playwright Noël Coward apparently called the gems “the largest sapphires [he had] ever seen”.
