The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: August 29-September 4

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August 29-September 4, 2014

We’re back in business with our weekly roundup of the most glittering royal jewels on display, everyone! Enjoy!

10. The always-elegant Crown Princess Mary of Denmark chose an eye-catching bracelet to award the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award to Salman Rushdie on August 17.


 

9. Over the weekend, Mary and Frederik traveled to Northern Ireland to attend the wedding of actress Flora Montgomery and Soren Jessen. Mary paired sparkling pendant earrings and a delicate gold necklace with her pale pink dress and hat.

8. At the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm on August 26, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden accessorized her H&M dress with delicate earrings made by Kreuger and stacked bracelets.

7. While helping to mark the 1000th anniversary of the Skara diocese, Victoria wore a pair of bold, dark blue earrings.

6. Pearls were Queen Silvia of Sweden’s choice for celebrating the 15th anniversary of the World Childhood Foundation on August 23, including a two-stranded pearl necklace with a diamond and pearl clasp and a pearl bracelet. The necklace is said to have originally belonged to Silvia’s mother-in-law, Princess Sibylla.

5. She may have relinquished her throne more than a year ago, but Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands is still a very busy member of her royal family. On Thursday, she wore diamond and sapphire earrings, plus a pearl necklace with a diamond and sapphire clasp, for the opening of a new exhibition on the Netherlands and World War I at Huis Doorn. (And even the hat pins coordinate with the jewels!)

4. A grand celebration was held in the Netherlands on August 30 to mark the 200th anniversary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and lots of royals gathered in Maastricht to join in the festivities. On the day, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians wore her diamond and pearl wedding earrings, plus a diamond bracelet, a watch, and her wedding and engagement rings.

3. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg appeared to be more amused by the celebrations in Maastricht than her husband! She wore a gorgeous pair of diamond and pearl pendant earrings with her green ensemble.

2. Queen Maxima was radiant as usual in Maastricht, donning one of my favorite pairs of her earrings: the diamond pendant earrings that originally belonged to Queen Juliana. Several different stones can be attached to these earrings; here, Maxima wears them with briolette-cut aquamarine drops from Queen Juliana’s diamond and aquamarine parure.

1. Saving the best for last: we’ve got tiaras from a state banquet in Norway! King Harald and Queen Sonja welcomed the Estonian president for a state visit this week, and the royal ladies brought out the bling for the dinner on Tuesday. Queen Sonja wore the full version of Queen Maud’s pearl tiara, while Crown Princess Mette-Marit wore her diamond wedding bandeau, and Princess Astrid wore her always-delightful winged aigrette. More photos here!

Queen Elisabeth’s Art Deco Bandeau

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It’s a new month, which means it’s time for us to delve into the collection of a new royal lady! Our Magpie of the Month for September is Queen Paola of Belgium, who will celebrate her birthday next week. Paola began her life as an Italian aristocrat before marrying a Belgian prince and later becoming the country’s queen consort. Today we’re discussing the tiara that she owns herself: the diamond art deco bandeau that has been worn by generations of Belgian queens.

Astrid wears the tiara in Brussels, ca. 1935

The tiara was made for Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in the early twentieth century. It’s relatively small, featuring rectangular diamond elements crossed by diamond laurel wreath. It’s also a convertible tiara — it can be worn as a necklace (a choker, more specifically) and as a bandeau. Elisabeth seemed to prefer some of her other tiaras to this simpler bandeau, and she eventually gave the tiara to her daughter-in-law, Queen Astrid. Sadly, Astrid didn’t have long to make use of the piece; she died at the age of only 29 in a car accident.

Paola wears the tiara, June 1965

The next wearer of the tiara was Princess Lilian, the second of wife of Astrid’s husband, King Leopold III. Along with wearing the bandeau as a tiara (supplemented with extra diamonds, likely the large round diamonds from the Nine Provinces Tiara), Lilian sat for a portrait wearing the piece as a choker.

Paola wears the tiara, December 1960

But again, the tiara was passed along to another member of the royal family relatively quickly. Queen Paola, then Princess of Liège, began wearing the tiara in the 1960s, nestling the sparkler in her fashionable bouffant hairstyles.

Paola wears the tiara, May 2004

Paola is still the owner of the bandeau tiara today. Even after she became queen (and had access to a more significant tiara, the Nine Provinces), she continued to wear this tiara on a regular basis. She passed the Nine Provinces along to Queen Mathilde last year, but this tiara remains in her collection.

Mathilde wears the tiara, December 1999

The bandeau gained even more royal significance in 1999, when Paola loaned the tiara to her new daughter-in-law, Mathilde. She wore the bandeau on her wedding day — it’s still the only occasion when she’s sported this particular sparkler.

Earlier this summer, Paola loaned the tiara for yet another wedding. This time, the wearer was Elisabetta Rosboch von Wolkenstein, the Italian bride of Paola’s grandson, Prince Amedeo. Eventually, I’d imagine that we might see this tiara eventually passed along to another royal Elisabeth — the Duchess of Brabant, Paola’s granddaughter (and the nation’s future queen).

This Week in Royal Jewels: August 1-7

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August 1-7, 2014
This week, we’re surveying the jewels worn by royal ladies during the events held to remember the beginning of World War I. A little sparkle was worn, but much of it was either subdued or connected to the events themselves.


5. On Monday, the Duchess of Cambridge traveled to Belgium to take part in events to mark the centenary of the start of the war. For the day’s commemorations, Kate wore a familiar pair of drop pearl earrings. Pearls and other “white” jewels are fairly commonly worn for events that have a somber or mournful element to them, like this week’s services, which remembered the sacrifice and loss of the war while underscoring the importance of peace and cooperation.

4. Kate, William, and Harry also took part in the World War I remembrance at the Tower of London, arriving on Tuesday to place ceramic poppies to mark the number of Britons who died during the war. Kate wore blue (as did both of the princes), which made for dramatic photographs against the sea of red poppies:

Kate wore a familiar pair of sapphire and diamond earrings (likely made from earrings once owned by her late mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales) as well as her wedding and engagement rings, her Cartier watch, and a diamond pendant necklace by Mappin and Webb.

3. Monday’s services were held on the date that troops invaded Belgium, and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians was present with her husband, King Philippe, to remember. Her jewelry was sparkling but understated, with a pair of diamond and pearl earrings and a delicate diamond bracelet paired with her dove-gray ensemble.

2. Queen Elizabeth II has already retreated to Balmoral for the rest of the summer, but she still observed the World War I centenary, albeit more quietly. She attended a service at Craithie Kirk, the church near the Balmoral estate. The church is the same one that Queen Victoria attended (and there’s a bust of Victoria in the sanctuary), and the Queen’s brooch is also a Victorian heirloom: one of her diamond bow brooches.

1. The member of the British royal family who had perhaps the most significant public role during this week’s commemorations was the Duchess of Cornwall, who extinguished the oil lamp at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior during Westminster Abbey’s vigil service on Monday.

At the vigil, Camilla wore her pearl choker with the diamond clasp, pearl earrings, and her engagement and wedding rings. Instead of a brooch, she wore an item with significant military and personal meaning: the badge of the 12th Lancers, the regiment with which her late father, Major Bruce Shand, fought in World War II.

Be sure to catch up with the rest of this week’s royal jewel posts!