Like the Cartier Lily Brooch, the Greville Bow Brooch is unusually large. The brooch was probably commissioned in 1900 by Dame Margaret Greville, the wife of the Hon. Ronald Greville. The commission was given to Boucheron, a firm that Margaret patronised regularly.
This particular commission cost 3,000 francs and consisted of dismantling a knot-pattern diadem and the removal of 718 brilliant and 484 roses. These were used to make a new diadem and a “noeud Brillant faisant broche”, which was probably this brooch.1
Margaret and her husband had had no children, and she bequeathed all her jewellery to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother upon her death in 1942. The most famous pieces include the Greville Tiara, which is now frequently worn by The Duchess of Cornwall, and the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara, which was worn by Princess Eugenie at her wedding to Jack Brooksbank. The brooch was inherited by Queen Elizabeth II upon her mother’s death in 2002, but the brooch hasn’t had a public outing in many years.
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