The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Mourning Jewels: Funeral of Prince Richard

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The life of Prince Richard, head of the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and husband of Princess Benedikte of Denmark, was celebrated today in Bad Berleburg. Members from many royal families gathered to remember the late prince.

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Princess Benedikte wore a gorgeous diamond and pearl scroll brooch with a pearl pendant. The brooch, which resembles a heart, was given to Benedikte by her mother, Queen Ingrid, following the birth of Prince Gustav in 1969. Benedikte wore the brooch for the first official photos of the baby prince. Bjarne Steen Jensen writes that the brooch belonged to Ingrid’s mother, Margaret of Connaught. I’ve also read, however, that the brooch came from Benedikte’s paternal grandparents, and was a gift from King Christian X of Denmark to his wife, Queen Alexandrine.

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Benedikte’s elder daughter, Princess Alexandra, wore one of her mother’s diamond stars as a brooch. The set of stars originally belonged to Queen Victoria of Sweden, Benedikte’s great-grandmother. Alexandra’s daughter, Countess Ingrid von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth, also appears to be wearing a diamond bar brooch.

Princess Nathalie, Benedikte’s younger daughter, borrowed her mother’s diamond bow brooch. She also wore earrings set with blue gemstones.

Carina Axelsson, the partner of Benedikte’s son, Prince Gustav, wore pearls.

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Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Benedikte’s elder sister, wore a piece that I’m not familiar with: a blue enamel heart brooch surrounded by a border of diamonds. The center of the brooch appears to be decorated with a royal cypher. It resembles Queen Ingrid’s cypher as well as those of two of her predecessors, Queen Louise and Queen Lovisa.

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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark wore the small round diamond brooch that’s said to have been a gift from her father-in-law, Prince Henrik.

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Princess Marie of Denmark wore pearls, including her small diamond and pearl flower brooch.

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Queen Anne-Marie, Benedikte’s younger sister, wore a four-stranded pearl necklace, plus diamond and pearl earrings. She also wore an interesting ring on her right hand. Her younger daughter, Princess Theodora, also attended but wore no jewelry of note.

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The Norwegian royal family was represented by Princess Martha Louise, who wore classic earrings.

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Queen Silvia of Sweden wore pearls with a modern, monochrome floral brooch.

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She was accompanied by her daughter, Princess Madeleine, who is also Benedikte’s goddaughter. She wore a simple pair of stud earrings.

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A trio of Dutch royals also attended the funeral. Queen Maxima wore diamond and pearl earrings with a pearl necklace (which features a central, pave-set bead).

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Maxima also wore a trio of bracelets; the lower two feature the names and initials of her husband and children.

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Princess Beatrix accompanied Willem-Alexander and Maxima to Bad Berleburg. She wore multi-colored pearls with large earrings, a pair of slender bracelets, and her diamond engagement ring.

On the Block: The Pink Star Diamond

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Four years after its most recent sale, the Pink Star Diamond will be auctioned once again at Sotheby’s early next month.

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The diamond, which was found in South Africa in 1999, was originally known as the Steinmetz Pink, after an billionaire Israeli diamond merchant. The diamond was so rare that it took twenty months to shape the stone from its 132.5-carat rough form to its present 59.60 carat mixed oval brilliant cut. The faceted and polished diamond was unveiled to the public in Monaco in 2003, and it was included in a major Smithsonian exhibition, “The Splendor of Diamonds,” later the same year. Actress Jenna Elfman wore the diamond as a pendant on a necklace at the opening of the exhibition.

Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Sotheby’s

After its inclusion in the exhibition in Washington, D.C., the Pink Star was sold several times. Most recently, it was offered by Sotheby’s Geneva, where it fetched $83 million. The buyer was Isaac Wolf, a diamond cutter from New York; however, the post-sale financial transactions were not completed, and the Pink Star was returned to Sotheby’s inventory.

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Now, the diamond will be sold again, this time at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. The firm announced on Monday that the Pink Star will be sold on April 4, and the auction estimate has been set “in excess of $60 million.” The diamond is currently in a ring setting.

Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Sotheby’s

The press materials released by Sotheby’s ahead of next month’s sale describe the diamond as follows: “The Pink Star has received the highest colour and clarity grades from the GIA for pink diamonds and has been found to be part of the rare subgroup comprising less than 2% of all gem diamonds – known as Type IIa: stones in this group are chemically the purest of all diamond crystals and often have extraordinary optical transparency. Mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999, the 132.5-carat rough diamond was meticulously cut and polished over a period of two years and transformed into this stunning gemstone. According to the records of the GIA Laboratory, the Pink Star is the largest Flawless or Internally Flawless, Fancy Vivid Pink, Natural Colour, diamond they have graded in a letter issued in April 2016.”