All the Queen's Most Impressive Earrings

Much of the queen's jewelry collection is courtesy of her grandmother Queen Mary, who did a fair bit of tinkering with these impressive diamond studs. Originally, the centerpieces were a pair of diamond solitaires that Mary received as a wedding present from Sir William Mackinnon, but she later had them replaced with a different pair of cushion-cut solitaire diamonds that were a wedding gift from the Bombay Presidency. The surrounds are made up of tiny milligrain and pavé diamonds, and the current queen inherited them upon her grandmother's passing in 1953.

No sooner had the Mackinnon diamonds been removed form the cluster earrings, than they were forming the centerpiece of a new pair, which featured seven small brilliant-cut diamonds around each central stone. These too were inherited by the queen in 1953, and she has worn them many times since.

This famous pair doesn't actually match! One of the diamond drops is 7 carats and the other is 12, and both came from an Indian armlet, which displayed the 105.6 carat Koh-i-nur diamond. The drops are suspended from cushion-cut collets that were taken from a Garter star and an antiquated headpiece. The impressive baubles were commissioned by Queen Victoria and worn at the coronations of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), and the current queen.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were known for their lavish declarations of love, and one of the most impressive sets of jewels in the royal collection comes courtesy of the famous pair. The crown rubies are made up of a necklace, earrings, and brooch, but when they were given to Queen Victoria, they contained her favorite stones — opals. Her daughter-in-law Queen Alexandra inherited them and had them reset with rubies, as she considered opals to be bad luck.

The pearl buttons surrounded by diamonds were part of a diamond and pearl parure — a suite of jewelry including necklace and brooch — that was a wedding gift to Queen Alexandra from her husband the future King Edward VII. She dutifully wore them on her wedding day, and after the current queen inherited them in 1953, she wore them on many occasions including the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.

Although the queen usually favors rubies when it comes to wearing colored stones, the set of sapphires given to her by her father are among her favorites. The Victorian-era necklace and earrings were a wedding present from George VI, and she was so enamored with them that she later had a matching tiara and bracelet commissioned.

These impressive pieces were inherited by the queen's great-grandmother Princess Mary Adelaide from her aunt the Duchess of Gloucester. The original tops of the earrings were made up of a pearl surrounded by diamonds and were detachable, however Queen Mary made the separation permanent when she gave the cluster tops to her granddaughter Princess Elizabeth (now the queen.) Queen Mary had the remaining drops suspended from a pair of solitaire diamonds, which her granddaughter inherited in 1953.

If the queen's triple-strand pearl necklace is the most-worn piece of jewelry in her collection, these equally understated earrings come in a close second. Nearly every daytime engagement that Her Majesty attends, she will be wearing the studs that are made up of a large lustrous pearl with a single diamond on top.

. . . not to be confused with this similar pair that the Duchess of Cambridge borrowed for her first solo overseas trip to the Netherlands last year. The queen wore them during her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and it's likely that Kate specifically chose them to view the iconic masterpiece Girl With a Pearl Earring.

Rescued from the hands of a wayward royal mistress, the cabochon emeralds have an interesting royal history. The queen's great-grandmother Princess Augusta of Hess won the emeralds in a lottery, but upon her passing, her son Prince Francis gave them to his mistress. Queen Mary purchased them back and had them used to create the jewelry that she wore to the Delhi Durbar — the celebration in India that marked the coronation of her husband, King George V.

Not all royal jewels are inherited from former queens or tokens of love from parents or partners. In 1942, Dame Margaret Greville bequeathed her impressive collection of jewels to her close friend the Queen Mother, and many of the pieces became popular with both the Queen Mother and the queen. This pair of earrings is thought to have been designed to show off as many different modern cuts of diamond as possible and was among the wedding presents given to the queen by her parents when she married in 1947. Each earring has 16 diamonds including pear-shaped pendants suspended from a stem of half-moon-, trapeze-, square-, baguette-, baton-, and emerald-cut stones.

Originally from Cartier, this pair features pentagonal diamond tops suspending emerald-cut diamonds and a pear-shaped drop. They belonged to the Queen Mother until her passing in 2002 when she bequeathed them to her daughter.

The pair was a 59th birthday present from King George V to Queen Mary and was later given to the queen for her wedding. The central rubies are each surrounded by nine brilliant-cut diamonds.

When the queen married, she was gifted with hefty set of aquamarines by the people of Brazil — the earrings and necklace were set with the largest and best quality stones, which had been collected over a number of years. Five years later, the Brazilian people added a brooch and bracelet to the suite, and the queen also commissioned a matching tiara.

One of the queen's go-to pairs for the annual State Opening of Parliament — the pearls are suspended from two diamonds and were a gift from Prince Albert to Queen Victoria in 1947.

Amethysts are not often worn by royal ladies, but the oldest set of jewelry owned by the queen is made up of the violet stones. This parure was owned by Queen Victoria's mother and is made up of a necklace, earrings, three brooches, and a pair of hair combs but has only been worn by the queen on one occasion.