Reunited with our waiting drivers, we are whisked back to The Peninsula for the second part of our immersive itinerary, kicking off with the hotel’s signature champagne afternoon tea at the stylish Garrard boutique. One of the highlights is being shown archival replicas of three royal tiaras, including the Lovers Knot Tiara, worn by both Princess Diana and Catherine, Princess of Wales. We learn that the pretty Fringe Tiara, donned by the late Queen for her wedding in 1947 to Prince Philip, snapped in two while being fitted by her hairdresser on the morning of the big day itself. At the Queen’s insistence, the tiara was rushed – with a police escort, no less – to the Garrard workshop, where it was repaired and returned to the palace within two hours. The tiara was most recently worn by Princess Beatrice at her wedding in 2020.
During our class with master gemmologist Sarah Radcliffe, we are shown how to use a small magnifying glass known as a “loupe”, which she describes as her profession’s “best friend”, and which is used to examine gemstones for fractures, inclusions and colour variations. The study of inclusions, she tells us, is “one of the most thrilling aspects” of learning gemmology because of how it can reveal the origin of a stone, both geographically and geologically. “Natural imperfections or inclusions are like the fingerprint of the gem, telling the story of how it formed deep within the earth,” explains Sarah. “The types of inclusions found in gemstones, whether they’re ‘whisps’ or ‘feathers’ in diamonds or distinctive shapes like ‘water lilies’ in peridots and ‘horse tails’ in demantoid garnets, can offer valuable clues about the stone’s origins.”
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