The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Saturday Sparkler: Queen Sofia’s Star and Pearl Tiara

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This week, the Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg — better known as Princess Benedikte of Denmark — celebrated her seventieth birthday. She’s the daughter of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark and the sister of two more queens, Margrethe II of Denmark and Anne-Marie (formerly) of Greece. As such, she has some pretty significant heirloom jewelry in her collection. Today’s tiara is one of the ones that she inherited from her late mother.

Queen Sofia wearing the tiara [1]
The first owner of the tiara was Queen Sofia of Sweden, who was born a princess of Nassau, a German duchy. When she married the crown prince of Sweden (later Oscar II) in 1857, she received this tiara as a wedding gift. The giver was her brother Adolphe, who would later become the grand duke of Luxembourg. The tiara, which features alternating diamond stars and pearls set on diamond spikes, was apparently made about the same time, dating it to the middle of the nineteenth century.


Sofia left the tiara to another Swedish queen: her daughter-in-law, Victoria of Baden. And when Victoria died in 1930, she was specific about who she wanted to inherit the piece: her granddaughter, Princess Ingrid. When Ingrid married the future King Frederik IX of Denmark five years later, she took the tiara with her to her new country. You’ll sometimes see the piece called “Queen Ingrid’s Star and Pearl Tiara” because of its association with Queen Ingrid.

Ingrid had a significant collection of tiaras, and when she died in 2000, they were divided among her three daughters. This tiara was left to her second child, Princess Benedikte. Today, Benedikte wears the tiara frequently, often pairing it with another set of star elements that can be worn as brooches, earrings, hair ornaments, or even suspended on a necklace. (Unlike other star tiaras, the stars on this piece are fixed and apparently are not removed.) She also lends the tiara to the other women in her family. Both of Benedikte’s daughters, Alexandra and Nathalie, have been photographed in the tiara, as has her son’s partner, Carina Axelsson [2].
NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Photograph in the public domain due to age; source here.
2. A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in July 2013.

This Week in Royal Jewels: April 25-May 1

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April 25-May 1, 2014
Time for another week’s worth of royal jewels! Enjoy!


10. Queen Elizabeth II has been in Wales this week. On Tuesday, she wore the Pearl Trefoil Brooch for a visit to the Royal Dockyard Chapel.

9. While Elizabeth has been in Wales, Queen Sofia of Spain made the rounds in London, where she inaugurated a library in her name at the Cervantes Institute on Wednesday. A photographer at the event snapped this close-up photograph of her watch, bracelet, and rings — note the evil eye motif in the bracelet she wears on her right wrist.

8. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg and Queen Sofia were among the royal women who attended the canonization mass at the Vatican on Sunday. Both women took advantage of their right to wear white in the presence of the pope, the privilège du blanc, as did another spouse of a (former) Catholic sovereign, Queen Paola of Belgium. Sofia matched a pearl necklace with her white dress and lace mantilla, a good choice for a white ensemble during a daytime religious ceremony.

7. During her state visit to China, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark wore earrings that stood out against her gray-blue dress and hat while visiting the Songzhu Temple in Beijing.

6. On Thursday, Queen Elizabeth visited Ystrad Mynach to conclude her Welsh visit. She chose to wear a piece of jewelry that has been in her personal collection for more than half a century: the Flame Lily Brooch, given to her on her twenty-first birthday by the Children of Southern Rhodesia.

5. Wednesday saw the continuation of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians’ introductory visits to other countries; this time, the couple visited Norway. Mathilde paired a coordinating set of jewels, including earrings and a bracelet, with the dress she wore to the princely wedding in Monaco in 2011.

4. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden turned 68 on Wednesday, and the family was out in force on the balcony for the occasion. Queen Silvia wore a stylized bow brooch to celebrate, and Estelle wore an actual bow, presumably for the same reason.

3. On Wednesday, Princess Michael of Kent chose a rather enormous beaded necklace to attend the opening of the “The Road to the Crown – The Kingdom of Hanover and Its Rulers,” an exhibit at Schloss Marienburg that is a part of the celebrations of the anniversary of the personal union between Hanover and Britain.

2. Princess Charlene of Monaco has been in America this week; on Tuesday, she accepted an award in Beverly Hills at The Colleagues’ 26th Annual Spring Luncheon. And, praise be, she seems to be slowly dipping her toes further into the royal jewel waters, as she donned not only earrings but also a sparkling bracelet at the event.

1. For the first King’s Day of Willem-Alexander’s reign, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands went to her go-to gemstone: aquamarines, this time suspended from a pair of diamond earrings.

Queen Margrethe’s Baden Palmette Tiara

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As we wind down our salute to our Magpie of the Month, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, let’s take a look at one of the smaller sparklers in her collection. The Baden Palmette Tiara, an heirloom with a long history, is a petite diadem that still packs a big, sparkly punch.

The tiara is originally a German piece, made in the mid-nineteenth century by Koch. It was a wedding gift from King Wilhelm of Prussia (who later became the first German kaiser) to his daughter, Princess Louise, who married Grand Duke Frederick of Baden in 1856.


Frederick and Louise’s daughter, Victoria, married King Gustaf V of Sweden in 1881. She brought the tiara with her to Stockholm (along with another rather familiar diadem, the Baden Fringe, which is generally worn today by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden). When Victoria died in 1930, her granddaughter, Princess Ingrid, inherited the tiara, and when Ingrid married Frederik IX of Denmark five years later, she brought the tiara with her to her new country.

Queen Ingrid died in 2000, and her impressive jewel collection has filtered through the royal and princely families of Denmark, Greece, and Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. Queen Margrethe was the lucky inheritor of this lovely tiara, and she wears it often. As it’s a rather romantic tiara, with its heart-shaped palmette motifs, she often dons it for romantic occasions, like the weddings of both Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Martha Louise of Norway (where she’s pictured above, with a young Queen Maxima of the Netherlands). It’s easy to see why the sparkler is one of Daisy’s favorites: it’s elegant, playful, and (most importantly for a tiara) small and therefore likely quite comfortable [1].

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in February 2013.