Crown Princess Martha’s Silver Wedding Earrings

When Crown Princess Mette-Marit gussies up for a white-tie event, she often selects a specific pair of diamond earrings. And no wonder—these petite diamond chandelier ornaments are seriously sparkling and seriously pedigreed. Here’s the story of Crown Princess Märtha’s Silver Wedding Earrings.

In 1954, Crown Prince Olav of Norway—who would later reign as King Olav V—was on the hunt for a silver wedding anniversary present for his wife, Crown Princess Märtha. Olav and Märtha, who was a Swedish princess, married on March 21, 1929, in Oslo. 

He selected these classic diamond chandelier earrings as her anniversary present, but sadly, Märtha never got to wear them. She died of cancer exactly one month after their silver anniversary.

Years later, after Märtha’s son, Harald, married Sonja Haraldsen, the earrings emerged in public. They were worn by Sonja and, later, by Princess Märtha Louise, who was named for her late grandmother. Above, Princess Märtha Louise wears the earrings with the bandeau base of the Maltese Circlet for the Swedish state visit to Norway in 1993.

Twenty years ago, a new crown princess joined the Norwegian royal family. Olav and Märtha’s son, King Harald V, and his wife, Queen Sonja, needed a wedding present for their new daughter-in-law, Mette-Marit. They decided to give her Crown Princess Märtha’s silver anniversary earrings.

It was a sentimental gift. More than half a century after her death, Märtha remains an important figure to the family. Mette-Marit debuted the earrings at a gala dinner held the night before her wedding in August 2001. She paired them with Queen Maud’s Vifte Tiara in its necklace setting.

Since then, the earrings have been a major part of Mette-Marit’s jewelry collection. Above, she wears them with her wedding tiara at the wedding of her sister-in-law, Princess Märtha Louise, in 2002.

She also wore the earrings with her wedding tiara at another important Scandinavian wedding: the 2004 nuptials of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. Four years later, she also wore them for the wedding of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie.

A few weeks later, she wore them for the gala held the night before King Felipe and Queen Letizia’s royal wedding in Madrid.

In 2011, she wore them in Monaco for the wedding of Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene.

She has also worn them for numerous important royal galas and banquets. In 2005, she brought them along on a state visit to the United Kingdom (birthplace of the buyer of the earrings, King Olav). Above, she wears them for a banquet at the Guildhall, where the photographic lighting was not kind to her blue eyes, during the visit.

She wore them in 2006 to celebrate the 60th birthday of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockholm.

And in 2012, she wore them in Denmark to celebrate Queen Margrethe II’s Ruby Jubilee.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit has slowly been adding new pairs of lovely earrings to her jewelry box over the years, but for me, these are hard to top!