explores the Coronation through portraiture, fashion, photographs, and jewellery, and will include the dress, robe of estate, necklace and earrings that she wore. Many of us who have lost someone we love will empathise with the desire to wear a piece of jewellery or clothing that reminds us of them – and the Queen had been given this brooch on a tour of southern Africa that she went on with her parents, and which coincided with her 21st birthday. “The flame lily brooch was the first piece we saw her wear in Britain as Queen,” says Caroline de Guitaut, the deputy surveyor of The Queen’s Works of Art, “and while the diamond, platinum and white gold setting is undoubtedly lovely, I imagine it was the sentiment behind it that drew her to it for such an occasion.”The brooch is designed in the shape of a flame lily, the national flower of Zimbabwe. It was a birthday gift from 42,000 schoolchildren in Rhodesia (as it was then called) who were asked to donate some of their pocket money to contribute to the creation of the diamond and platinum piece – and was designed by Harare jeweller H H Bell and made by Eric Kipin at Sidersky & Son in Johannesburg.
