The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: January 31-February 6

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January 31-February 6, 2014
As the royals begin to start amping up their engagements following the holidays, here are ten of the sparkliest royal stories of the week!
10. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, who celebrated her birthday this week, wore a distinctive gold and pale pink pendant necklace to present awards to Danish scientists on Thursday in Copenhagen.
9. Queen Mathilde of the Belgians chose pearls and diamonds for the first day of an official visit to President Hollande in Paris.
8. At a concert held to give thanks for the years of service of Princess Beatrix to the Dutch people, Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma wore an impressive statement necklace; the event also served as an announcement of her pregnancy. (There’s a mini baby boom happening in the Dutch branch of the Bourbon-Parma family; Princess Viktoria, the wife of Prince Jaime, is also expecting.)
7. Shortly after stories circulated that Queen Elizabeth II had ordered the Duchess of Cambridge to wear more heirloom jewelry, the palace announced that the two will attend a reception for the dramatic arts at Buckingham Palace on February 17. Other members of the royal family (not yet announced) will also be in attendance.
6. There’s been some serious jewel detective work happening over at Luxarazzi. They’ve determined that nearly all of the pieces from the controversial cancelled auction of Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte’s jewels were sold anonymously in later auctions — some for only a few euros a piece. See their discussion of auctions from 2007, 2008, and 2009 for more.
5. Tiara lovers in New York City recently had the rare opportunity to see one of the diadems designed by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria in person. Her sapphire and diamond tiara was displayed at the annual Winter Antiques Show as a part of a special exhibit.
4. Queen Sofia chose a piece from her family’s archives — a pearl necklace with a diamond and cabochon ruby pendant — for a diplomatic reception in Madrid. She inherited the pendant from her mother, Queen Friederike of the Hellenes.
3. At a church service in King’s Lynn, Queen Elizabeth II debuted the diamond and tourmaline brooch presented to her last year by the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan.
2. For the concert celebrating her mother-in-law, Queen Maxima wore for the first time the large sapphire and diamond bow brooch made for Queen Wilhelmina. See John’s excellent site about the Dutch royal jewels for much more information about the piece.
1. Shocking royal watchers all over the world, Tatiana Santo Domingo wore a diamond fringe tiara to marry Andrea Casiraghi, the elder son of Princess Caroline of Monaco, in a Catholic ceremony in Gstaad. You can read more about the diamond fringes worn by Grimaldi princesses here.

Birthday Jewels: Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark [1]
Today, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark celebrates her forty-second birthday. The Tasmanian-born princess has embraced the world of royal jewelry enthusiastically since joining the Danish royal family in 2004, and today, she wears a number of heirloom pieces from the family collection. To celebrate her birthday, we’re going to look at a small piece of jewelry that packs a major sentimental punch: her sapphire, diamond, and pearl brooch.
Mary’s sapphire, diamond, and pearl brooch [2]
The brooch features a large faceted sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Swags of pearls are suspended from the main element of the brooch, as is a floral diamond and pearl drop. The brooch can be traced back five generations in the family, back to Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia. She married the Duke of Connaught (one of Queen Victoria’s sons) in 1879. Among her wedding presents was a sapphire and diamond brooch, given to her by Colonel Stannerly [3]. The Washington Post describes the jewel as “a breastpin, with a sapphire set in diamonds” [4].
Queen Margrethe II [5]
Louise’s brooch was inherited by her daughter, Princess Margaret of Connaught, who took it with her when she married the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. At some point the brooch was apparently reset, taking on its current appearance; that would account for the pearls, which must have been part of a later addition to the piece. Precisely who had the jewel remodeled isn’t clear. But it is clear that the sapphire brooch is one of the jewels that Margaret’s only daughter, Ingrid, inherited and took with her to Denmark.
Here the history of the brooch becomes clearer. Ingrid generally reserved the brooch for important occasions within the family. She wore it during the engagement celebrations for her eldest daughter, Queen Margrethe II, and Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat. Eventually, Ingrid bequeathed the brooch to Margrethe, though the queen also wore the sapphire brooch during Ingrid’s lifetime, specifically at the christening of her first grandson, Prince Nikolai, in November 1999 (see the photograph on the left).
In 2006, Margrethe gifted the sapphire, diamond, and pearl brooch to Crown Princess Mary. It was a present to mark the birth of Mary’s eldest child, Prince Christian of Denmark. Mary wore the brooch in public for the first time at Christian’s baptism, which was held on 21 January 2006. Since then, she has also worn the same brooch at the christenings of her two youngest children, twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine (in April 2011). The brooch isn’t the only wardrobe element that Mary has repeated for her children’s christenings; Mary has also worn the same ivory floral headpiece at each of the them, including Princess Isabella’s christening in 2007.
Crown Princess Mary and Prince Christian [6]
While discussing the sapphire brooch during her interviews for De Kongelige Juveler, a wonderful documentary on royal jewels, Mary noted, “Some people learn history through wars or famous people, but jewelry is just as good a possibility to learn history. It shows how the families have married through the generations. And it doesn’t only talk about lineage, but it also relates to personal events in families. For example, we know that this brooch has always been worn for family-related events. Except that now I have it, and I tend to wear it a little bit more generally” [7].
NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped still from a YouTube video; source here.
2. Cropped still from a YouTube video; source here.
3. It’s not clear exactly who this is referencing. Elsewhere in the Post list of Louise’s wedding gifts, a Colonel “Stanley” offers two antique silver bowls; that Col. Stanley is almost certainly the 16th Earl of Derby (the Governor General of Canada for whom the Stanley Cup is named). It seems unlikely that the brooch came from him, as the two gifts are separated by a number of other entries on the list. If anyone can identify this “Colonel Stannerly,” please let us know in the comments!
4. Published in the Washington Post on 14 Mar 1879. Ursula also includes a list of wedding gifts here.
5. Cropped still from a YouTube video; source here.
6. Cropped still from a YouTube video; source here.
7. You can view the first episode of the documentary here.

Saturday Sparkler: The Midnight Tiara

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Crown Princess Mary wears the Midnight Tiara in June 2013 [1]
While the Danish royal jewel collection includes a number of antique heirloom tiaras, the women of the family also have a few contemporary diadems at their disposal. This modern sparkler, the Midnight Tiara, is worn exclusively by the nation’s future queen.

Crown Princess Mary [2]

Crown Princess Mary wears three tiaras: today’s sparkler, her wedding tiara (in both all-diamond and diamond-and-pearl configurations), and the historic Danish Ruby Parure Tiara. Of the three, the Midnight is the most recent addition to her tiara wardrobe. It was created in 2009 by Charlotte Lynggaard and craftsmen and women of the Ole Lynggaard workshop. The piece features diamond and moonstone “berries” nestled among leaves of rose gold, white gold, and oxidized silver. It was originally displayed alongside historic Danish royal diadems as a part of a tiara exhibition at the Amalienborg Palace Museum.

The tiara was designed with the crown princess’s Australian heritage in mind: the leaves and berries are said to have been made to resemble the Golden Wattle, a symbol of the nation. Mary first wore the tiara in public in 2009 at a party in honor of the 75th birthday of her father-in-law, Prince Henrik. Since then, she has worn it at several other high-profile occasions, including Queen Margrethe’s 70th birthday celebrations and the wedding of Princess Madeleine of Sweden in 2013 (see the photographs above and at right).

But although she is the only person who wears the tiara, Mary doesn’t actually own the piece. Rather than purchasing the tiara, which is valued at nearly $300,000, a deal was made that gives Mary the exclusive right to wear the tiara, while the Ole Lynggaard company is the actual owner [3].

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped version of a photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
2. Cropped version of a photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
3. A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in October 2013.