This Week in Royal Jewels: May 16-22

May 16-22, 2014

This week’s roundup of royal jewel news includes an anniversary gift, an heirloom brooch, and a set of regalia back from the grave…

10. Although the super-packed June schedule for the Windsors (Garter Day, Trooping the Colour, Ascot, D-Day Celebrations) is still a week or so away, Queen Elizabeth II has been busy with engagements already. For a visit to the HMS Lancaster in Portsmouth on Tuesday, she sported one of Queen Victoria’s bow brooches.

9. Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands has been visiting Sint Maarten in the Caribbean this week. While visiting the Royal Youth Parliament on Tuesday, she wore a lovely set of lapis lazuli jewels, plus a floral brooch.

8. Royals from Denmark and Sweden were on hand to help the Norwegian royal family celebrate the country’s constitutional anniversary this weekend. Once again, Queen Margrethe turned to her trusty modern turquoise set for the celebrations in Eidsvoll on Saturday. She also added a golden ornament to her hair.

7. We talked quite a bit here last week about the tenth wedding anniversary of the Danish crown princely couple; the pair also marked the anniversary with gifts. Mary received a new piece of jewelry from Frederik: a new bracelet, commissioned from Ragnar R. Jørgensen, that features silhouette portraits of their four children. The bracelet, which is made of gold and black enamel, resembles early nineteenth-century cameo jewelry (like the set owned today by the Bernadottes). Here’s the best image I could find so far.

6. She’s already something of a mini royal superstar, but Princess Estelle of Sweden didn’t carry out her first formal engagement until Saturday, when she opened the Fairytale Path in Mjolby, accompanied by her parents. Both Estelle and her mother chose simple jewelry: a gold necklace for Estelle and diamond stud earrings for Victoria.

5. Some royal jewels aren’t intended to be seen again by the public after a monarch is buried. That was surely the case for Emperor Henry VII of the Holy Roman Empire, who was laid to rest in 1315 in the Duomo in Pisa, Italy. Recently, the grave was exhumed, and a simple crown, plus an orb and scepter, were found with the emperor’s remains. Here’s more (in Italian).

4. Royal tours by members of the British royal family not named William, Kate, or George get comparatively little fanfare, but the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have been in Canada this week, visiting a number of provinces and stirring up the occasional controversy. Not controversial to me, however, was Camilla’s choice of brooch for a visit to the Winnipeg Ballet on Wednesday: her gold Van Cleef & Arpels ballerina brooch, which is set with sapphires, diamonds, and rubies. (Psst: stay tuned for a bigger overview of Camilla’s tour jewelry this weekend!)

3. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, president of the Red Cross of Luxembourg, honored the grand duchy’s blood donors on Sunday. She wore a striking set of blue and tortoiseshell costume jewelry, including earrings and a necklace. She’ll almost certainly be breaking out more jewels in the coming days, as the grand ducal family will be attending both Prince Gabriel’s first communion on Saturday and the Closing of the Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg on Sunday.

2. Once again, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands had an awfully sparkling week. My favorite of her glittering appearances was Thursday’s appearance at an anniversary symphony concert, where she wore blue jewels to contrast with her white gown.

1. We celebrated the wedding anniversary of the Prince and Princess of Asturias in style this week (looking at her bridal tiara and at the Mad Hattery that the guests sported!). The couple celebrated with a visit to Toledo to see an El Greco exhibition, where Letizia wore low-key jewelry. But earlier in the week, she sported a rather lovely pair of pendant earrings (that look to me to be set with diamonds and rubies) at a dinner honoring the business community in Seville. Love seeing Letizia wear a bit more bling!