Token pearl gestures – symbolic of grief – were omnipresent at the funeral ofQueen Elizabeth II on Monday. Both Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan,Duchess of Sussex both chose pieces created with the natural gemstone.
Often referred to as ‘mourning jewellery’, the soft, subtle polish andcolorless nature of pearls, along with associations of purity, are consideredan appropriate choice to represent the grieving period.
The Queen, too, was rarely seen without her signature three-strand pearlnecklace, and some of her favorite pieces from her private jewelery collectionfeatured the gemstone.
But the Queen would often wear pearls herself, the poignant reason whilst whyroyals wear pearl jewelery at funerals and during mourning actually goes backmuch further than the late monarch’s reign.
Why do female members of the Royal Family wear pearls during times ofmourning?
The tradition of pearls as ‘mourning jewellery’, in fact, dates all the wayback to Queen Victoria.
After the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria was soovercome with grief that she famously wore only black for the next 40 yearsuntil the end of her own life, accessorising her colorless outfits with pearlswhich were said to represent tears.
Victoria wore several strands of pearls for the remainder of her life, and thetradition of wearing the gems during the mourning period has continued in theRoyal Family into the modern day.
A portrait of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) wearing black mourning dress and apearl necklace painted in 1900 by Bertha Muller. (Getty Images)
Queen Victoria’s complex, and sometimes rigid rules around the rites ofmourning inspired the same etiquette throughout the course of the late 19thcentury.
“By the 1860s, a widow was expected to dress in black for a year and a dayafter her husband’s death, wearing minimal black matte ornaments, usually ofunpolished jet,” writes Clare Phillips, jewelery curator at the Victoria andAlbert Museum, in her book Jewels and Jewelery.
“Gradually she was allowed more elaborate mourning jewellery, then diamondsand pearls, and finally a return to colored stones,” she adds. “Some widows,following the example of Queen Victoria, never returned to more light-heartedpieces.”
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Queen Victoria’s choice was ingrained in tradition and the demure, respectfuloutward gesture of grief became a historic choice for members of the RoyalFamily during periods of mourning and at funerals.
Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Queen Mary wearing traditionalmourning wear as they greeted the coffin of King George VI from Sandringham.(Getty Images)
The Queen wore her signature three-strand pearl necklace to her mother’sfuneral in 2002. (Getty Images)
The late Queen Elizabeth II herself wore pearls to the funerals of herPrincess Margaret, King George VI, the Queen Mother and Diana, Princess ofWales, and most recently, to the funeral of her husband Prince Philip, Duke ofEdinburgh in 2021.
And other members of the Royal Family have closely followed the late monarch’sexample.
Diana, Princess of Wales chose a simple string of pearls for the funeral ofPrincess Grace of Monaco in 1982, and again for the funeral of Gianni Versace10 years later.
Diana, Princess of Wales, wearing pearls to the funerals of Gianni Versace (L)and Princess Grace of Monaco (R). (Getty Images)
Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore the Queen’s four-string pearl and diamondchoker for the Queen’s funeral which was also worn by her late mother-in-law,Princess Diana in the past.
Kate previously borrowed the choker to wear to the Queen and Prince Philip’s70th anniversary celebration in 2017, and later to the Prince’s funeral in2021. Given the sentimental backstory behind the necklace, it’s no wonder shewore it again to honor the late monarch.
Catherine, Princess of Wales wore the Queen’s four-strand necklace the funeralof Prince Philip in 2021 and then the Queen’s funeral in 2022. (Getty Images)
Featuring four strands of pearls and a diamond clasp, the choker wasoriginally gifted to the Queen from Japan in the 1970s and she often wore itherself, including on a state visit to Bangladesh in 1983.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wore a pair of pearl and diamond earrings, whichwere gifted to her by the Queen following her marriage to Prince Harry to boththe procession and the Queen’s funeral.