Floral Tiara Tournament: Floral Aigrette vs Isenburg Floral

Will it be the flowers from Denmark or from Germany?

Some believe that this incredible, flexible floral ornament originally belonged to Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, grandmother of King Frederik IX. We know for sure, though, that in the 1960s it belonged to a famous Danish-American tenor, Lauritz Melchior. He sold it to King Frederik in 1963, and it’s been sparkling on the heads of Queen Ingrid and Queen Margrethe II ever since. Queen Margrethe is especially inventive in the ways she wears the three-sectioned tiara.

The family tiara of a relatively minor German princely family, this naturalistic diamond floral sparkler came into the spotlight when it was worn by two family brides: Katharina, who married Archduke Martin of Austria-Este (brother of Prince Lorenz of Belgium), and Sophie, who married Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia.