The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Coronation Brooch Heading for New Home

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Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Last summer, we discussed the possible fate of one of Princess Elisabeth of Denmark’s grandest jewels: the Russian Coronation Brooch that belonged to her great-grandmother, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna. Now we know where it’s headed!

Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Wikimedia Commons)

The brooch, which was made by Fabergé, was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia to celebrate their coronation in 1896. The firm constructed the brooch out of gold and set it with 137 diamonds, including two that measured more than 6 carats. Eighteen were made and presented to the grand duchesses attending the festivities. One of them, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna, was the mother of the Queen Alexandrine of Denmark. Alexandrine inherited the brooch in 1922.

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The brooch was bequeathed by Alexandrine to her son and daughter-in-law, Hereditary Prince Knud and Hereditary Princess Caroline-Mathilde. In turn, they passed the brooch along to their only daughter, Princess Elisabeth. She wore the brooch often at grand gala events in Denmark until her death in 2018. In her will, she bequeathed the important brooch to the Danish Royal Collection, to be housed at the Amalienborg Museum.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The acquisition was revealed in the royal collection’s annual report, which was recently shared at the Royal Jewels of the World Message Board. Along with the brooch, she also left other items to the royal collection, including a bracelet decorated with portraits of King Frederik VIII and Queen Lovisa. The report highlights the significance of the brooch — only three of the original eighteen are still known to exist — and its links to the Russian imperial heritage of the Danish royal family. The brooch will reportedly go on display at Amalienborg some time later this year.

The Portland Tiara Has Been Stolen

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The Portland Tiara (Nottinghamshire Police)

Distressing jewelry news out of England this week: the Portland Tiara, one of the pieces most prominently worn during the 1902 coronation, has been stolen from the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire.

John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, ca. 1902 (Wikimedia Commons)

The tiara has a rich royal history. In 1901, when Queen Victoria died, Britain prepared for its first coronation in more than half a century. Many aristocrats, including the 6th Duke of Portland, ordered new jewels for the occasion. He commissioned Cartier to make a new tiara for his wife, Winifred, to wear at the coronation in Westminster Abbey. The centerpiece of the tiara would be a rectangular gem, the Portland Diamond, from the family’s collection.

Laurits Tuxen’s The Anointing of Queen Alexandra at the Coronation of King Edward VII, ca. 1903 (Wikimedia Commons)

Winifred had been given a special role at the coronation that certainly warranted a brand-new tiara: she had been named as one of the four duchesses who would serve as canopy bearers, surrounding Queen Alexandra as she was anointed. The new tiara, therefore, would have a special place in the spotlight — and it would be captured for posterity by the artists producing special paintings of the coronation.

Detail, Laurits Tuxen’s The Anointing of Queen Alexandra at the Coronation of King Edward VII, ca. 1903 (Wikimedia Commons)

Winifred and the Portland Tiara, with its distinctive curves and scrolls, can be seen clearly in Laurits Tuxen’s painting of the anointing of Queen Alexandra. This detail from the painting depicts William Dalrymple Maclagan, the Archbishop of York, preparing to anoint the kneeling Queen Alexandra, with Winifred in the foreground (wearing the Portland Tiara) and the Duchess of Marlborough in the background (wearing her diamond tiara from Boucheron). The other two canopy bearers, the Duchesses of Montrose and Sutherland, can be seen in the full version of the painting above.

The Portland Diamond Brooch (Nottinghamshire Police)

The original version of the tiara was topped by a series of diamond clusters, which were later removed and repurposed as a brooch. That brooch, seen above, was also stolen on November 20.

Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland wears the Portland Tiara, ca. 1902 (Grand Ladies Site)

You can spot the clusters atop the tiara in this portrait photograph of Winifred, taken around the time of the coronation. The new tiara continued to be useful throughout her life, including her time at court as Queen Alexandra’s Mistress of the Robes. Although some of Winifred’s jewels were auctioned after her death (including her sapphire tiara), the tiara remained with her descendants — until it was stolen this week.

The Portland Tiara (Nottinghamshire Police)

The tiara and brooch were housed in a gallery on the Welbeck Estate, which was the seat of the Dukes of Portland for centuries. (The title went extinct in 1990.) Thieves broke in to the gallery on the evening of Tuesday, November 20, smashing the alarmed glass case where the jewels were kept and speeding off in a silver Audi. The car was later found abandoned in Blidworth. Police are hoping that anyone with information about the crime will come forward, and the Welbeck Estate website currently includes a press release with contact information from the authorities.

The tiara is, sadly, only the latest in a string of prominent jewels to be stolen from museum collections. In April 2017, a diamond tiara from the collection of Grand Duchess Hilda of Baden was stolen from the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe. And in August, a group of thieves sensationally escaped by boat after stealing pieces of Swedish royal funeral regalia from Strängnäs Cathedral. Neither theft has been solved.

Queen Juliana’s Inauguration Jewels

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Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Seventy years ago today, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was officially sworn in as the nation’s monarch. To mark the anniversary, we’ve got a closer look today at the jewels that Juliana — who is also our Magpie of the Month! — wore for her formal inauguration.

On September 6, 1948 — two days after her mother, Queen Wilhelmina, had abdicated — Juliana arrived at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam for a special joint session of the States General. In front of the nation’s elected officials, and royals from across Europe, and with her husband, Prince Bernhard, by her side, Juliana officially became Queen of the Netherlands. The Dutch royal regalia, which is not physically worn or used during the country’s inauguration ceremonies, rested nearby on a cushion.

Wikimedia Commons

According to press reports, Juliana had originally intended to wear a tiara for her inauguration — more specifically, according to the Chicago Tribune, “a diamond tiara worn by the retiring Wilhelmina at her enthronement” in 1898. (That would be the Stuart Tiara.) Juliana ultimately wore the Stuart for a theater gala held during the inauguration festivities, but for the ceremony itself, she chose a very different kind of headpiece.

Wikimedia Commons

Instead of a tiara, Juliana chose to wear a Juliet cap, an open-work cap frequently decorated with gemstones (and named after the Shakespeare character). Juliana’s cap was “crowned by a diamond star and edged in pearls,” with “four smaller diamond stars,” more pearls, and rubies. The cap was reportedly designed “especially to flatter its wearer” and made using gemstones from the family’s jewelry collections.

Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The press also correctly noted that Juliana paired her bejeweled cap with ruby and diamond pieces from the family’s jewelry vaults. She paired the necklace from the Ruby Peacock Parure (borrowed from Wilhelmina) with the ruby cluster drop earrings and large ruby and diamond stomacher from the Mellerio Ruby Parure. A ruby and diamond bracelet from her mother’s collection completed her jewelry.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The complete look was a unique one. Newspapers noted that the “lavish use of rubies blends her jewelry with the red and purple velvet of her enthronement robes.”

Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Juliana’s decision to eschew a tiara puts her at odds with the other modern Dutch queens when it comes to inauguration jewelry. Her daughter, Beatrix, wore the Pearl Button Tiara for her swearing-in ceremony in 1980, while Queen Maxima wore a modified version of the Dutch Sapphire Parure Tiara for the inauguration of her husband, King Willem-Alexander, in 2013.