Princess Anne Wears 60-Year-Old Heirloom Brooch to Open Memorial Garden

Princess Anne gave a master class in reading a brooch in public. At the opening of the Queen Elizabeth II Garden in Regent’s Park, she wore a floral spray set with emeralds, sapphires and rubies on the lapel of a burnt-orange, knee-length coat, a jewel with at least 60 years of family history and a paper trail that stretches from Westminster Abbey to the Epsom Derby.

That documented history is what makes the piece so revealing. Princess Anne first wore the brooch at the 1962 Royal Maundy Service, when she was 11, and it was last photographed in 2022 at the Epsom Derby. A brooch that can be tied to specific, dated appearances is easier to identify than a mystery heirloom tucked into a velvet box. Start with the silhouette, and this one reads immediately as a floral spray, a mid-century royal favorite because it frames colored stones like a tiny bouquet. Then look at the setting and the stone combination: emeralds, sapphires and rubies give the piece the saturated, formal palette that has long suited royal daywear. The final clue is the record of wear, because provenance is not just family lore when the same jewel keeps reappearing across decades and occasions.

The setting for the brooch mattered as much as the jewel itself. Princess Anne opened the Queen Elizabeth II Garden on April 21, the day her mother would have turned 100, and unveiled a commemorative plaque in the process. The two-acre space in Regent’s Park was created by The Royal Parks from a former disused plant nursery and is opening to the public on April 27. It includes four entrances, a wildlife-supporting circular pond and a central flower garden planted with species significant to Queen Elizabeth II.

The project also carries the kind of public participation that gives memorial gardens texture rather than just symbolism. Close to 200 members of the public joined a November 2025 planting day and put in thousands of spring bulbs, including tulips, alliums and grape hyacinths. Princess Anne met gardeners and designers involved with the work, and the broader royal observance for Queen Elizabeth II’s centenary year framed the opening as both private remembrance and civic space.

For anyone looking at an inherited brooch, the lesson is the same as it was on Princess Anne’s lapel: read the shape, study the stones, and look for the life the jewel has already lived. A brooch with a traceable history is never just decoration. It is a small archive worn in plain sight.