The Duchess Dictionary: Daffodil

The national flower of Wales, it's worn on St David's Day, the feast day of the patron saint of Wales, on 1 March each year.
As Catherine will in due course become Princess of Wales, the daffodil was always bound to play a significant symbolic role in her style choices.
The lace on her wedding dress,  hand-made by the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace using the traditional Charrickmacross lace-making tecnique, details a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock, the floral emblems of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively:

The main wedding cake, an eight-tiered creation by Fiona Cairns, featured those same four flowers rendered in sugar paste on the penultimate tier:

A daffodil also appeared in the bottom right-hand corner of the tins containing slices of the wedding cake that were given to guests:

On a visit to London department store Fortnum & Mason on St David's Day 2012 with the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall, Catherine wore a daffodil corsage as a nod to the occasion:

The three royal ladies were presented with daffodil bouquets. It's worth mentioning that the Duchess of Cornwall was also sporting a Welsh-related brooch, in the form of a diamond badge representing a leek, another well-known symbol of Wales:

For the Duchess's first-ever video message, recorded in April 2013 in support of children's hospices network EACH, of which she is patron, a large bunch of daffodils had pride of place on the side table, alongside one of the official wedding photos and a photo of the Queen Mother in a silver frame:

Incidentally, a daffodil also appears in the logo of cancer charity Marie Curie.

Attending the first garden party of the year at Buckingham Palace on 23 May 2013, it was reported that the Duchess got chatting to Marie Curie nurse Susan Bradley, who said afterwards: "She recognised my uniform and told me she has great admiration for the work the charity does, because our staff cared for her grandfather when he was terminally ill".

Prince George, who will of course one day become Prince of Wales in his own right, had none other than a daffodil named in his honour at the 2014 edition of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The new variety, aptly named "Georgie Boy" in honour of the little Prince, was unveiled by Walkers Bulbs and has white overlapping petals surrounding a bright yellow corona:

The Duchess Dictionary: Berkshire

The county of Catherine's birth, Berkshire is located in south-east England. It's a county of historic origin and has been known as the Royal County of Berkshire since at least the 19th century, due to the presence of Windsor Castle (Eton and the Ascot racecourse are also located within the county).

Berkshire shown within England.

The future Duchess of Cambridge was born on 9 January 1982 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, as were both her siblings. At the time of Catherine's birth, her parents lived in a semi-detached Victorian house in Bradfield Southend, near Reading.

Baby Catherine was christened at St Andrew's Bradfield, near Reading, on 20 June 1982:

After a two-year stay in Jordan, where her parents worked for British Airways, Catherine was enrolled as a day pupil at St Andrew's School, near Pangbourne, Berkshire. St Andrew's is an independent, coeducational day and boarding preparatory school. Catherine's sister Pippa was also a pupil, as was in earlier years John Le Carré, the spy fiction writer. Fees nowadays start at £4,900 per term for Years 3 & 4 and go up to £5,400 per terms for Years 5 - 8. Catherine was a pupil there from 1986 to 1995.

School colours are green and white, and its motto is Altiora Petimus, or "We seek higher things". The school boasts a 54-acre park and is very big on sports and outdoor activities.
The undated photo below shows Catherine (front row, centre) and the rest of the school's hockey team:

During her time at Pangbourne, Kate appeared in a school production of My Fair Lady as Eliza Doolittle. A charming video of her singing in a cockney accent survives! Her co-star in the musical was Andrew Alexander, who went on to make acting his profession and has appeared in Downton Abbey as Sir John Bullock, a one-time love interest of Lady Rose.

Catherine returned to St Andrew's as a Duchess, on 25 November 2012, when she joined pupils for a day of activities (including a spot of hockey) to mark St Andrew's Day. It was her last public engagement before her first pregnancy was officially announced.

  

After attending girls' only Downe House School in Berkshire for just two terms as a day girl, Catherine moved on to Marlborough College, a co-ed school in Wiltshire, as a boarder.

At the time of the Royal Wedding, the couple's choice of anti-bullying charity Beatbullying as one of those guests and well-wishers could donate money to lead to widespread press reports claiming that Catherine's move to Marlborough had been due to bullying (Daily Telegraph article here; one of many Daily Mail articles here; Richard Palmer for the Daily Express article here).

Catherine's parents, Carole and Michael, who have lived for years in Bucklebury, Berkshire, bought a grand seven-bedroom Georgian mansion in the village in 2012, to afford them (and the Cambridges, who are frequent visitors) more privacy than their former, smaller property:

  

The Duchess Dictionary: Jigsaw

Catherine worked for Jigsaw as an assistant accessories buyer for about a year, between 2006 and 2007.

Based on Mortlake Rd, in Kew, south-west London, the company was started in 1972 by John Robinson and Malcolm Webster, and is now owned by Robinson Webster (Holdings) Ltd.
The company aims "to sell stylish clothes in inspiring surroundings, at affordable prices", true to their motto that "fashion is temporary but style is permanent".

In December 2006, when Catherine was 24 years old and had been dating Prince William for around three years, a spokeswoman for Jigsaw said: "We can confirm that Kate joined our staff two or three weeks ago as an accessory buyer for Jigsaw and Jigsaw Junior. We can't comment any further."
One of the company's owners, John Robinson, and his wife Belle are close family friends of the Middletons. The role of assistant accessories buyer was therefore tailored to Catherine's needs, in order to accomodate her growing royal commitments.

At the time, Catherine was often photographed wearing Jigsaw pieces, like this pretty Pansy Floral silk dress, which came with a £169 price tag and, in an early example of the "Kate effect", immediately became rather popular with shoppers:

While working for Jigsaw, Catherine collaborated with British brand Claudia Bradby Jewellery, which designs contemporary pearl jewellery for everyday wear, combining the finest cultured pearls, semi-precious stones and sterling silver to create beautiful, timeless pieces.
At the time Bradby told the Evening Standard that she'd written to Catherine to congratulate her on the new appointment with Jigsaw, and then later Catherine got in touch to discuss creating a small pendant together.

We're talking about the "Kate" rose quartz and silver necklace, which is still available to buy at £72/$105/€93:

 The necklace was reissued after the royal engagement announcement (above, the Evening Standard report). Also, notice the inflation, as back in 2010 the necklace was just £42!

The piece was originally part of the brand's Junior range, aimed at girls aged 6-18 and was reissued as part of the main brand's "Heritage" collection in time for the Royal Wedding.
A matching pair of earrings is now available as well.
From the description on the Claudia Bradby website: "designed in collaboration with Kate Middleton, this delicate silver pendant framed with rose quartz and pearl charms is fittingly feminine. Layer with the Camellia necklace for a full effect.
The pink pearl is traditionally a symbol of love and today rose quartz is known as 'the stone of gentle love'".

Another Claudia Bradby piece with an obvious connection to Catherine is the "Camellia" rose quartz and amazonite necklace, which retails at £225/$326/€288. Rose quartz and amazonite are both associated with love and said to balance the emotions and promote calm.

Catherine was photographed wearing the "Camellia" necklace at Celtenham racecourse in April 2007 just before her brief split with Prince William (below left) and in December that year at an airport stopover (below right):

 

On a side note, it was Claudia's husband Tom Bradby, a long-standing acquaintance of Prince William, who carried out the first official joint interview of the couple after the engagement was announced on 10 November 2010:

Both Tom and Claudia Bradby were guests at the Royal Wedding:

Catherine quit the job at Jigsaw in November 2007, fuelling rumors of an imminent royal engagement, after the couple had briefly split in April that year. It was reported at the time that she gave up the role as she wanted "time to herself", with some speculating she might build on her passion for photography and go on to open a gallery. As it turned out, this project never materialized and it was in fact another three years before the engagement was announced.

The Duchess Dictionary: Asprey

Founded in 1781, Asprey has a long and established relationship with British royalty dating back to the 1800s when Queen Victoria awarded the first Royal Warrant for dressing cases, travelling bags, and writing cases.
Since then, Asprey has held a Royal Warrant for every British monarch and several other foreign heads of state. Today, Asprey continues to hold a Royal Warrant for the Prince of Wales.

The Duchess of Cambridge has been photographed wearing a few Asprey pieces over the years, starting from well before her engagement, when she wore the "167 Button" pendant to the Boodles Boxing Ball at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on 3 June 2006.

The "167 Button" pendant is a pavé diamond button with a central amethyst stone, in 18ct white gold suspended from an 18ct white gold chain. The pendant has a diameter of 14mm / 0.6", while the chain is 45.7cm /18" long and is priced at £3,150/$4,250. The purple amethyst is a nod to the firm's signature colour - all Asprey purchases are wrapped in signature Asprey purple packaging and tied with purple ribbon:

The design is inspired by the buttons employed in traditional English tailoring, and the number 167 references the brand's prestigious Mayfair premises, at 167 New Bond Street.



The Duchess has selected the "167 Button" pendant for many significant occasions: she wore it on 23 October 2010, just prior to the official announcement of her engagement, to the wedding of Harry Meade and Rosie Bradford in Gloucestershire (below left); it travelled with her on her first overseas tour, where it made a high-profile appearance on Canada Day on 1 July 2011 (below right):

  

Other significant appearances of the pendant include the Duchess's first solo engagement at the opening of a Lucian Freud exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London on 8 February 2012 (below left), then at her first official engagement since the announcement of her pregnancy with Prince George, again at the National Portrait Gallery for the unveiling of her first official portrait on 11 January 2013 (below right):

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Another well-loved Asprey piece in the royal jewellery box, albeit a much more recent acquisition, is the Woodland Charm necklace. The charms, part of Asprey's Woodland Collection, which takes inspiration from the "myriad wonders of Britain’s woodlands", are designed by Shaun Leane and realised in 18ct yellow gold, diamond and enamel, with prices starting at £2,050/$2,800 for the Oak Leaf charm, one of those in the Duchess's necklace (the others are the Acorn charm, priced at £3,050/$4,150) and Mushroom charm for £4,100/$5,550):

The necklace made its first appearance on Easter Sunday 2014, while on a visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney, as part of the royal tour of Australia and New Zealand, and the Duchess has worn it a number of times since, including on her subsequent visit to the National Indigenous Training Academy at Uluru (shown below):

The acorn and oak leaf charm are most probably a subtle reference to the Duchess's own coat of arms, which features three acorns with leaves to represent the three Middleton children:

Incidentally, if you love this necklace as much as I do and are after a great repli-kate, you might want to consider the one by The Looking Glass Shop on Etsy; you can read my review here.

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Debate is still very much open on whether the unidentified diamond and gemstone earrings Catherine debuted in Singapore at a reception at Eden Hall on 12 September 2012, are indeed by Asprey.

Below, she is seen wearing them at a tea party at the British High Commissioner residence in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia, later in the tour:

The earrings feature a medium-sized oval pale blue gemstone (aquamarine?), surrounded by pavé diamonds and hanging from a row of five bezel-set brilliants.

My Small Obsessions has a series of close-ups on her Facebook page.

Asprey does have rather distinctive, although not exclusive, ear posts (shown below on a different style for comparison), that seem to match the ones in Catherine's earrings, but the uncertainty remains:

By far the most striking piece of Asprey jewellery ever worn by Catherine, however, is the instantly recognizable Canadian Maple Leaf brooch:

In the form of a leaf of the Candian Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), the national emblem of Canada, it was given to Queen Elizabeth by King George VI, to mark the State Visit to Canada in 1939. It was first seen on the Queen's lapel during the Atlantic crossing in the liner Empress of Australia, and appeared on many occasion throughout the tour and thereafter (shown below left in Vancouver in 1958, and in 2000, worn to receive the insignia of the Order of Canada at Buckingham Palace), sometimes worn as a hat-badge.

 

The Queen loaned it to Princess Elizabeth for her first visit to Canada in 1951. 

The Queen inherited it upon her mother's death in 2002, and in turn has since loaned it to the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge for her first visit to Canada with the Duke in July 2011. 

 

The Queen in Ottawa for the Canada Day celebrations in 2010 and the Duchess of Cornwall attending Remebrance Day events at the National War Memorial in Ottawa in November 2009.

I think we can safely expect it to make a reappearance on the autumn 2016 tour, although this is not the only brooch with a Canadian connection in the Queen's jewelry box (or, indeed, the only maple leaf brooch!), so we'll just have to wait and see!

 The Duchess of Cambridge wore the brooch three times during the 2011 tour.

The brooch measures 5.5 x 5 cm and is made of platinum set with baguette and brilliant-cut diamonds.  According to Hugh Roberts, author of the definitive The Queen's Diamonds, who examined the King's Privy Purse accounts, the brooch cost £300 5s and was purchased on 29 April 1939, just before the couple's departure.

Looking for a replikate? This one on Etsy is slightly smaller than the original but very pretty. Alternatively, I'm holding out for the Royal Collection to come up with a replica - they currently have around 10 replicas of the Queen's brooches available for sale, including the New Zealand Silver Fern as seen on Catherine, and I suppose they might think a Maple Leaf would prove popular ;-)