Two diamond jubilee portraits, separated by more than a century, both evoke dignity, tradition and majesty. With the Victoria Memorial shining against an azure sky, Elizabeth II's portrait seems to deliberately emphasise her links with Queen Victoria.
The two queens share more than just a long and proud record of service, however. Elizabeth II wears Queen Victoria's Collet Necklace, which her great-great grandmother wore for her own Diamond Jubilee portrait in 1897.
This underlines the great continuity of the British monarchy, but more prosaically it seems to be a favourite piece of jewellery. Queen Elizabeth wore it to her coronation in 1953, and she wears it in her portrait on British coinage (pre-1998).
Like many items in the Royal Collection, the Collet necklace was made up from 'recycled' diamonds, which had preciously adorned a garter badge and a ceremonial sword. The large, detachable, pear-shaped stone is the Lahore Diamond, which was presented to the Queen (along with many other magnificent gemstones) by the East India Company after the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Designed by Prince Albert, this necklace was shown to great advantage in the 1859 Winterhalter portrait of the queen, and was one of the few items of jewellery that that she continued to wear during the long years of her widowhood.
