The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Saturday Sparkler: King Olav’s Gift Tiara

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It’s something of a Scandinavian tradition for royal princesses to receive tiaras as an eighteenth birthday present. Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine of Sweden each received one, as did each of the three daughters of King Frederik IX of Denmark (Margrethe, Benedikte, and Anne-Marie). Even a future Scandinavian queen, Princess Maud of Wales, received an eighteenth-birthday tiara from her grandmother, Queen Victoria. (Bonus points if you can ID each of these tiaras in the comments!) Today, let’s look at the birthday tiara received by one of Maud’s descendants, Princess Märtha Louise of Norway.

Märtha Louise is the only daughter of King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway, but when she turned eighteen in 1989, the monarch in Norway was her grandfather, King Olav V. He carried on the tradition started by his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, by giving a tiara to Märtha Louise as an eighteenth birthday present. Olav (who — trivia fact — was born Prince Alexander of Denmark on the Sandringham estate in England), was much beloved; he also served as one of Märtha Louise’s godparents. He died about a year and a half after bestowing this sparkler on his granddaughter.

The tiara that Märtha Louise received is a strikingly modern one, with intertwined diamond elements forming a low bandeau, interspersed with small pearls and topped by a series of larger pearls. The base of the tiara is often covered by a braid that matches Märtha Louise’s hair color — a nice change from the usual velvet-wrapped tiara base.

Märtha Louise has worn the small tiara regularly since receiving it, although today she also sometimes swaps it out for other pieces from the royal jewel collection, including the family’s amethyst tiara and the smaller version of Queen Maud’s pearl tiara.

Saturday Sparkler Special: Royal Wedding Tiaras

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Today is, of course, Valentine’s Day — a day when romance and love are celebrated. To mark the holiday, we’ve got a special edition of the Saturday Sparkler column that is dedicated to love — or, at least, to marriage! Today’s grouping of tiaras is a very specific one: sparklers that have become part of a bridal tradition in various royal families. Enjoy!

The Cameo Tiara

Country: Sweden
Current Owner: King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
Maker: Marie-Étienne Nitot, ca. 1800
Bridal Wearers: Princess Birgitta (1961), Princess Désirée (1964), Queen Silvia (1976), Crown Princess Victoria (2010)

Dating back to the imperial court of Napoléon Bonaparte, the Cameo Tiara is a part of a larger parure of cameo jewelry. Early wearers included Queen Hortense of Holland and Joséphine of Leuchtenberg. Appropriately for a tiara that has become associated with romance and weddings, the pearl and gold piece depicts scenes from the myth of Cupid and Psyche. The piece became a traditional bridal tiara in the middle of the twentieth century, when it was worn by Princesses Birgitta and Désirée (sisters of the present king) and Queen Silvia. The tradition stretched to a second generation of royal brides when Crown Princess Victoria wore it to marry Daniel Westling in 2010.

The Prussian Tiara

Country: Germany, Greece, Spain
Current Owner: Queen Sofia of Spain
Maker: Koch, ca. 1913
Bridal Wearers: Viktoria Luise of Prussia (1913), Queen Sofia (1962), Queen Letizia (2004)

Rather than belonging to a single nation’s royal family, the Prussian Tiara has passed through a line of royal women that stretches from imperial Germany to present-day Spain. The diamond and platinum tiara was worn by Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, daughter of the last kaiser, at her wedding in 1913. Her granddaughter, Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark, wore the piece in Athens when she wed Juan Carlos of Spain in 1962. And the present Spanish queen, Letizia, borrowed the tiara from her new mother-in-law for her royal wedding in Madrid in 2004.

The Congo Diamond Necklace Tiara

Country: Luxembourg, Liechtenstein
Current Owner: Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
Maker: Van Cleef and Arpels, ca. 1953
Bridal Wearers: Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte (1953), Grand Duchess Maria Teresa (1981), Princess Marie Astrid (1982), Princess Margaretha (1982)

Two generations of Luxembourgish royal brides have worn this convertible necklace/tiara, which was made using diamonds given to Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte as a wedding gift by the colonial government of the Belgian Congo. The piece also has a matching bracelet. It was worn by Joséphine-Charlotte at her religious wedding ceremony (though not in her wedding portraits); her two daughters, Marie Astrid and Margaretha, and her daughter-in-law, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, also wore the tiara at their weddings. After Joséphine-Charlotte’s death, the tiara was nearly sold at auction; however, after the public protested, it was returned to the grand ducal vaults.

Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara

Country: United Kingdom
Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Maker: E. Wolff and Co. for Garrard, ca. 1919
Bridal Wearers: Queen Elizabeth II (1947), Princess Anne (1973)

Unlike many royal families, the Brits don’t really have one dedicated
tiara in their arsenal meant for brides. The closest the family has to a
wedding tiara is this piece: the fringe tiara that first belonged to
Queen Mary. The present Queen wore the tiara to marry Prince Philip in 1947, although the tiara snapped shortly before the ceremony and had to be hastily repaired. Her only daughter, Princess Anne, also wore the tiara at her first wedding in 1973. Since then, however, British royal brides have opted for different wedding jewels.

Maria Pavlovna the Younger (source)

The Romanov Nuptial Tiara

Country: Russia
Current Owner: the Russian government
Maker: Jacob David Duval, ca. 1800
Bridal Wearers: numerous Romanov brides, including Elizabeth Feodorovna (1884), Elizabeth Mavrikievna (1884), Alexandra Feodorovna (1894), Elena Vladimirovna (1902), and Maria Pavlovna (1908)

The Russian imperial family decked its brides in numerous traditional wedding jewels, including this tiara, which featured a large pink diamond in the center, a nuptial crown, a necklace, earrings, and an incredibly large brooch used to clasp the bride’s ermine mantle. The jewels were scattered after the revolution. The government has retained the tiara, while the crown resides in the Hillwood Museum in Washington, D.C., the earrings and the buckle brooch are, I believe, in the nation’s Diamond Fund, and the necklace appears to have vanished.

The Khedive of Egypt Tiara

Country: Denmark, Germany, Greece
Current Owner: Anne-Marie of Greece
Maker: Cartier, ca. 1905
Bridal Wearers: Anne-Marie of Greece (1964), Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (1967), Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1968), Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1998), Alexia of Greece and Denmark (1999), Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (2010)

Given to Princess Margaret of Connaught as a wedding present by the Khedive of Egypt, this Cartier tiara has become the official bridal diadem of her daughter’s family. All of Queen Ingrid’s daughters and granddaughters has worn the tiara so far at their weddings, and there are a number of additional female-line descendants who will also one day be eligible to wear the sparkler. The tiara now resides in the collection of Ingrid’s youngest daughter, Anne-Marie, the former Queen of Greece.

Queen Margherita’s Musy Tiara

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Even though the House of Savoy’s tenure as Italian monarchs was a relatively short-lived one — they ruled over the unified country for less than a century — the family still managed to amass quite the jewel collection. And while many pieces have been lost or sold since the family went into exile, today’s tiara, the impressive Musy tiara that belonged to Queen Margherita, has managed to stay in the Savoy collection.

The tiara dates to 1904, when Queen Margherita, who was by then the nation’s dowager queen, ordered it from Musy. Some of Margherita’s own pieces were broken up to create this new tiara, which is one of the most versatile diadems in any royal family’s arsenal. Different sections of the tiara can be removed or swapped out to create new looks. The piece, which incorporates scroll and shell motifs and floral elements with large central pearls, is somehow large and airy at the same time. (It’s an impressive design, but I have to admit that it’s my second favorite thing associated with Margherita. A girl’s got to have her priorities!)

Margherita wore the new tiara for the first time at the christening of her grandson, the future King Umberto II, so it’s appropriate that when she shuffled off this mortal coil in 1926, she bequeathed the piece to him. In turn, Umberto gave the tiara to his bride, Princess Marie José of Belgium, as a wedding gift. She wore it on their wedding day in 1930, and it became one of the pieces she was most associated with. Above, she wears the tiara in 1960 during the wedding festivities of King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

After the Italian people voted to end their monarchy in 1946, Marie José took the tiara with her into exile. Eventually she passed the tiara on to the woman who would be queen today had the monarchy not been abolished: Marina, the wife of Umberto and Marie José’s son, Vittorio Emanuele. Although she has few occasions to wear such a major piece, Marina did sport the complete tiara — and a pair of dark lenses — at the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark in 2004.