Queen Elizabeth II inherited the brooch when she ascended the throne in 1952, adding it to a substantial sapphire stash of her own, including a showstopping suite from her father, a brooch given to her by her mother and her favourite Cartier flower spray pin, containing light blue sapphires and rubies, which she received from both her parents in 1945.ĭiana, meanwhile, adored the blue stones because they matched her eyes. The regal love of the gem, said to symbolise love and purity, dates back to 1840, when Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria a diamond and sapphire brooch to mark their wedding, a moment so touching the monarch wrote about it in her private diary remarking: ‘My dear Albert has such good taste.’

This dazzling diamond necklace was a wedding gift from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, a man she had never met, and was by far the most magnificent of her 12,000 wedding presents. Made by Asprey, the suite comprised a huge Burmese sapphire pendant set in a jagged sunray fringe of diamonds

Sapphire earrings