The Queen wears Queen Mary's diamond and pearl brooch to Prince Philip's funeral

The Queen arrived at the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, wearing a pair of pearl and diamond earrings, her pearl necklaces, and Queen Mary's pearl and diamond Richmond brooch. The brooch was made by Hunt and Roskell and was given to Mary, the Queen's grandmother, as a wedding present in 1893 by the town of Richmond.

The brooch was originally set with two pearls: a round pearl in the centre, with an additional pear-shaped pearl drop. The Queen wore the brooch without the drop for the service.

The Queen inherited the brooch when her grandmother died in 1953. She wore it to the opening of parliament in New South Wales in 1954, and more recently wore it to the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014 and 2018. It's the same brooch she chose for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018.

She also wore her triple-strand pearl necklace, a mainstay of her wardrobe throughout her life. On her wedding day she wore two strands of pearls that she received as wedding gifts from her mother and father. One had belonged to the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, and the other belonged to Queen Caroline.

Pearls are a tradition when it comes to royal funerals, often worn alongside white diamonds. The colourless gems are in keeping with mourning dress codes, and in Victorian mourning jewellery, pearls were used to represent tears.

The Queen wore pearls to the funerals of her uncle the Duke of Windsor in 1972, the Duchess of Windsor in 1986, Princess Diana in 1997, her mother Queen Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret, both in 2002, as well as that of her father King George VI in 1952.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore a four-strand Japanese pearl choker with a diamond clasp and pearl and diamond earrings borrowed from the Queen, as she made her way to Windsor Castle for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. It’s the same choker she wore to a party at the castle to celebrate the Queen and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary in 2017.

The choker was commissioned by the Queen and created by Garrard using cultured pearls that were a gift from the Japanese government in the late 1970s. Princess Diana also borrowed the necklace for a banquet for the Dutch royal family in 1982.

The Duchess paired the choker with the Queen's Bahrain pearl and diamond drop earrings, which she has borrowed for several formal events, including the Remembrance Sunday service in 2017. The earrings were crafted using two of the seven pearls the Queen received as a wedding gift from the Hakim of Bahrain in 1947.

They have also previously been worn by Princess Diana, who paired them with the same pearl choker at the Dutch royal banquet in 1982.

Princess Anne also wore pearls, choosing a pair of her favourite earrings: the gold, pearl and diamond abstract earrings by British jeweller Andrew Grima, a favourite of the royal family in the 1960s and '70s. Reportedly a gift from her parents, the Princess Royal has worn them on many special occasions over the decades - including the weddings of her daughter in 2011, her nephew, Prince Harry, in 2018, as well as at her own wedding to her second husband, Sir Timothy Laurence, in 1992.

Prince Philip was also a fan of Andrew Grima's work. He awarded the jeweller the Duke of Edinburgh Prize for Elegant Design in 1966, and that same year the Duke presented the Queen with a yellow gold, ruby and diamond Scarab brooch by Grima. The brooch is one of the Queen's most special pieces; she chose to wear it for a portrait released to mark their platinum anniversary, in 2017.

For the Duke's funeral, the Duchess of Cornwall chose the diamond Brooch of the Rifles, a reference to her title as Colonel-in-Chief of the Rifles, after her father-in-law transferred the role to her in July. She can be seen wearing the brooch in the official portrait released to mark her new position in October. She paired the brooch with pearl earrings.

Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Zara Tindall also wore pearl drop earrings, although both were daintier in size than those worn by Lady Penny Brabourne, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, the only non-family member amongst the 30 mourners permitted at the Prince's funeral. The Countess' husband, Norton Knatchbull, is the grandson of the 1st Earl Mountbatten, Prince Philip's uncle. Lady Brabourne was a close friend of Prince Philip, having bonded over their shared love of carriage driving.

For the Duke's funeral, the Countess wore a pair of diamond and pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, and a sizeable diamond fern brooch. In traditional Victorian mourning jewellery, ferns symbolised sincerity.

Read more

• The history of mourning jewellery, and why pearls are the traditional choice for royal funerals

• The Queen’s jewellery gifts from Prince Philip, and her other most sentimental pieces

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