Royal jewellery watchers had plenty to study at Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, when King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted a white-tie state banquet for Haitham bin Tariq, the Sultan of Oman. It was the first state visit by a Sultan of Oman since 1982, and the royal women arrived in their finest tiaras. Yet the piece everyone was talking about by the end of the night was a necklace that, as far as the experts can tell, nobody had seen in public before.
A tiara with a long memory
Queen Camilla chose the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, a diamond diadem bought from Garrard in 1893 as a wedding gift for Queen Mary. Mary later passed it to her granddaughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II, for her own wedding, and it became the late Queen’s favourite. Many people will know it without realising, because it is the tiara she wore on banknotes and coins for decades. Vanity Fair Italia read the choice as a quiet tribute, and the whole look was built around regal colour: a royal blue chiffon gown by Fiona Clare, leaning towards violet, which Camilla first wore at the Windsor state banquet for Donald and Melania Trump in September 2025.
Amethysts, pearls and a puzzle
The earrings were easier to place. They are the amethyst and diamond earrings that belonged to the Duchess of Kent, Queen Victoria’s mother, and form part of a suite that Victoria designated as Heirlooms of the Crown. Camilla wore pieces from the same Kent suite at the White House state banquet in April. The necklace, however, puzzled even the specialists. It features swags of small pearls strung between amethyst and diamond clusters, and Vanity Fair Italia notes that its festoon design points to the Victorian era, possibly the same period as the Kent jewels. The Court Jeweller said it did not believe it had ever seen the piece before and hoped the palace would share more details.
Two of the Queen Mother’s Art Deco bracelets completed the look, one in diamonds and one in sapphires and diamonds. Elsewhere at the table, the Princess of Wales wore a sand-gold Elie Saab cape dress with the Lover’s Knot Tiara, while the Duchess of Gloucester chose Queen Mary’s Honeysuckle Tiara with its pink centre stone.
Purple and blue is a pairing that never looks dated. If the evening has you thinking about violet stones, take a look at our amethyst earrings, amethyst pendants and amethyst jewellery sets, or add a little sparkle at the wrist with our sapphire bracelets.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia (21 October 2026); The Court Jeweller (20 October 2026 and 28 April 2026); Town & Country (20 October 2026). Featured image: AI-generated illustration of an amethyst and pearl necklace, not the actual royal piece.
