The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Princess Claire’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara

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Princess Claire’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

The Belgian royal family’s tiara collection is quite small when compared to that of some of their royal relatives and neighbors, but in recent years a few important additions have been made to the vaults. Today’s tiara, the pearl and diamond sparkler that belongs to Princess Claire, is one of those jewels.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Claire began wearing this tiara in public in 2010. Before that, she exclusively wore her small diamond wedding tiara at white-tie events like state banquets and royal weddings. This newer tiara is still petite, but it’s much larger and more detailed than its predecessor. The tiara is notably architectural, featuring fleur-de-lis patterns against a set of vertical lines, topped by half-pearl buttons. To my knowledge, no provenance information about the tiara has ever been released.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Claire premiered the tiara in public at a major bejeweled event: the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden in June 2010. She brought the same tiara with her to the wedding of Prince Albert II of Monaco the following year.

Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

She also paired the tiara with a green dress — and, as usual, her diamond and pearl wedding earrings — for the wedding of her husband’s cousin, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg, in October 2012.

The Kent Pearl Festoon Tiara

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The Kent Pearl Festoon Tiara (Photo: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Today’s tiara comes from the collection of the (arguably) most royal of all the branches of the Windsor family: the Kents. This is the diamond and pearl festoon tiara that once belonged to Princess Marina.

Lots of the Kent tiaras have very clear and established provenance information. Because Prince George, Duke of Kent married a fellow royal — Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark — the couple garnered a pretty serious tiara haul as a part of their wedding gifts. But this tiara doesn’t seem to have been a wedding present, and its history is a bit less certain. It was reportedly made around the turn of the twentieth century, possibly by Cartier. Some sources think that the duke may have purchased the tiara for his wife. Ultimately, we really don’t know.

Princess Michael wears the tiara at a Guildhall banquet in 2003 (Photo: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Princess Marina wore the tiara throughout her life, and she also occasionally loaned the tiara to her only daughter, Princess Alexandra. But when Marina died in 1968, the tiara was bequeathed to Marina’s younger son, Prince Michael of Kent. The tiara originally was an all-diamond piece that featured pearls at the tip of each of the elaborate festoon elements, but the Michaels of Kent have apparently removed the bottom row of diamonds and added an extra row of pearls along the base of the tiara. (A very similar alteration has been made to Crown Princess Mary of Denmark’s wedding tiara.)

Princess Michael wears the tiara at a Guildhall banquet in 2011 (Photo: CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images)

Although she does have other tiaras, including a fringe also inherited from Marina, this tiara is the one that Princess Michael seems to favor for official occasions. She also frequently wears it for portrait photographs. And who can blame her — the tiara is balanced, classic, and appears to be fairly easy to wear. Who wouldn’t want to trot it out on a regular basis?

Queen Josefina’s Diamond Tiara

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Queen Josefina’s Diamond Tiara (Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images)

When you first dig into the history of the Scandinavian royal families, one of the first things you notice is the plethora of empresses, queens, and princesses named “Josephine” in the family tree. Because of that, there are many opportunities to confuse the royal Josephines with their various tiaras. But the Josephine associated with this lovely diamond tiara is clear: it comes from Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway (née Princess Joséphine of Leuchtenberg), the wife of King Oscar I and the granddaughter of another famous Josephine (that would be Napoleon’s Empress Joséphine). So many Josephines!

Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway wears the tiara

Although some have suggested that this tiara first belonged to Queen Désirée of Sweden, most seem to agree that Queen Josefina was actually its first wearer. Some think it may have been a wedding present to Josefina, though no one knows precisely who the giver might have been; historian Trond Noren Isaksen proposes that it may even have been worn by her on her wedding day. The maker is also uncertain, but the design is beautiful and typical of the first half of the nineteenth century, with its intricate diamond floral and laurel wreath elements.

Queen Lovisa of Denmark wears the tiara

When Josefina died, the tiara was inherited by her granddaughter, Lovisa, who married King Frederik VIII of Denmark. After Queen Lovisa’s death in 1926, the tiara passed to her unmarried son, Prince Gustav. When he died, he left the tiara to his niece, Princess Märtha of Sweden, who had married Crown Prince Olav of Norway in 1929.

Queen Sonja wears the tiara (Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Märtha died before she could become queen of Norway. After her death, her daughter, Princess Astrid, frequently wore the tiara while serving as Norway’s de facto first lady. Today, it’s Märtha’s daughter-in-law, Queen Sonja, who wears Josefina’s tiara.

Note: this is an updated version of an earlier post, with new text and images.