The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

A Tiara for Sofia?

by // Leave a Comment

Sofia Hellqvist at the wedding of Princess Madeleine in 2013 [1]
Once again, rumors are flying in Sweden that Prince Carl Philip, the only son of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, will soon announce his engagement to his long-time girlfriend, Sofia Hellqvist. The prince has been dating the former model and reality television star for three years, and she’s been invited to several major royal events, including the christening of Princess Estelle and Princess Madeleine’s wedding.
The newest set of engagement rumors reported by Swedish gossip magazines center on the couple’s plans to move into Villa Solbacken, the former residence of Prince Bertil and Princess Lilian. Carl Philip inherited the home from his uncle in 1997, with the stipulation that Bertil’s widow would be able to continue to live there until her death. Princess Lilian died last year, and Stoppa Pressarna! (a publication that sounds not even a little sensational) reports that Carl Philip is beginning renovations on the property. The article stresses that Carl Philip and Sofia don’t plan to move into the home together until after they are married, even though the pair are already cohabiting. Svensk Damtidning thinks that the pair are surely planning to start a family of their own soon, and their article even speculates that maybe they’ll marry at a church in Sofia’s hometown.
These kinds of rumors have popped up occasionally since the royal court confirmed the couple’s relationship, and surely one of these days they’ll be true. All I know is this: royal weddings in Scandinavia are some of the sparkliest around, and if the papers are speculating about a wedding, it’s time for us to start speculating about a wedding tiara!
Clockwise from top left: Queen Sofia’s tiara [2]; the Boucheron laurel wreath tiara [3];
the six-button tiara [4]; and the Connaught diamond tiara [5]
So shall we start taking wagers? Here are my top four choices for a tiara for Sofia, should she decide to use one from the Bernadotte family vaults:
Queen Sofia’s Tiara: Okay, I’ve chosen this one primarily because of the name that the royal court uses for the piece. It’s probably a bit too severe for a bridal tiara — it is known as the “nine prong,” after all — and it is notoriously difficult to wear. But it’s also a tiara that originally belonged to Sofia of Nassau, the Swedish queen who shares our potential princess’s first name, and it sparkles like you wouldn’t believe.
The Boucheron Laurel Wreath Tiara: Sofia would have to borrow this piece from her potential sister-in-law, Crown Princess Victoria, who inherited the tiara last year from the late Princess Lilian. Since Carl Philip seems to be patterning his royal role after that of his uncle Bertil (he’s taken on some of Bertil’s patronages, and he does own the late prince’s home), it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Sofia patterns her own potential royal role after Lilian’s. What better way to demonstrate that than wearing one of Lilian’s most important pieces of jewelry? The tiara also has another Sofia connection — it was given by Queen Sofia to Princess Margaret of Connaught as a wedding present.
The Six-Button Tiara: again, I’m thinking of tiaras with links to the late Princess Lilian. This piece features diamond rosette buttons that originally adorned the crown of the first Bernadotte king. The buttons were made into a tiara for Princess Lilian sometime in the last half of the twentieth century. It’s not terribly bridal, but maybe it would look more appropriate for a wedding when paired with a veil?
The Connaught Diamond Tiara: one of the most romantic-looking pieces in the Swedish royal collection, I’m always shocked that it’s only been worn by a bride once (that would be Princess Christina in 1974). It’s delicate, it’s an Edwardian heirloom — what more could a new princess want?
So, what do you all think? Will Sofia and Carl Philip be heading down the aisle soon? Which tiara would be your favorite for this potential princess — one of these pieces, another Bernadotte tiara, or a completely new sparkler?
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. Cropped version of a photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
4. Cropped version of a photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
5. Cropped version of a photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.

Margaret of Connaught’s Laurel Wreath Necklace

by // Leave a Comment

Crown Princess Margareta [1]
As the month draws to a close, so does our foray into the jewel collection of Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and ancestor of many of the current Scandinavian royals. Today, let’s wrap up with a look at one of her wedding gifts: her laurel wreath necklace, worn today as a tiara.
Crown Princess Margareta [3]

The necklace, which was made by Boucheron, was given to Margaret by her new husband’s grandmother, Queen Sofia of Sweden. The piece may have been a stock item in Boucheron’s collection rather than a specific commission by the queen, as another nearly identical necklace by Boucheron was auctioned at Christie’s in 2010 [2]. That necklace differs from Margaret’s in only one aspect: Margaret’s appears to have one additional diamond suspended from the center of the necklace, something that the auctioned necklace lacks. (This additional diamond drop is also visible when the piece is worn as a tiara.) Christie’s notes that the auctioned necklace was made in the late nineteenth century, which could certainly also be true for Margaret’s necklace — she received hers in 1905. The auctioned necklace is also listed as a “necklace-tiara,” which suggests that both pieces were intended to be convertible from the start.

But Margaret apparently never wore the piece as a tiara; she was only ever photographed wearing it as a necklace. The two photographs above show her wearing the necklace with full Swedish court dress, including her Irish lace veil and the diamond “forget-me-not” tiara she received from her parents as a wedding gift. The necklace was not worn in public as a tiara until more than half a century after Margaret’s death, when her daughter-in-law, Princess Lilian, began wearing the piece to official functions.

Lilian obtained the right to wear the laurel wreath after she began a relationship with Margaret’s third son, Prince Bertil. The laurel wreath necklace is one of the jewels that he inherited from his mother; another one of the pieces that he received was the scarab necklace that we recently discussed. Lilian and Bertil had something of a star-crossed love affair. They met and fell in love in England during the war, but Lilian was already married to someone else. Even though she and her husband amicably divorced, marriage to Bertil was still out of the question for more complicated reasons.

Marrying Lilian would have caused Bertil to lose his place in the Swedish succession; Bertil’s grandfather, the king, would not have approved their “unequal” marriage. It wasn’t uncommon for Swedish royal men to chose love over titles (two of Bertil’s brothers did, in fact) [4], but Bertil needed to keep his place in line so that he could serve as regent for his nephew, Carl Gustaf, should he have become king before his eighteenth birthday. (Because Carl Gustaf’s father had died in a plane crash, which led to him becoming the heir to the throne at the age of four, this was a real possibility.) So Bertil and Lilian waited to get married, choosing duty to the family over legal recognition of their relationship.

Crown Princess Victoria [6]

But although their relationship could not be legally sanctioned, Lilian was accepted as a member of the royal family. This tiara was actually one of the public symbols of that acceptance. She wore it in public for the first time in 1972 at the 90th birthday celebrations of Bertil’s father, King Gustaf VI Adolf [5]. Even today, it’s highly unusual for unmarried partners of royal men to wear tiaras to family occasions, and when it’s done, it generally signals that they are considered a part of the royal fold, marriage certificate or not. (See also: Bertil and Lilian’s great-nephew, Prince Gustav of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, and his partner, Carina Axelsson .)

After Carl XVI Gustaf became king, he granted permission for his Uncle Bertil to marry Lilian and keep his royal titles. They wed in Drottningholm Palace in 1976, and Lilian officially became a Swedish princess. She attended many official functions with the royal family over the years, including the Nobel ceremonies, and she often wore her mother-in-law’s laurel wreath at those events. She became an important part of the royal family, even acting as a sort of surrogate grandmother for Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip, and Princess Madeleine.

The laurel wreath tiara became Lilian’s personal property on the death of Prince Bertil in 1997. After suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Lilian died in March 2013. She made sure that this heirloom tiara stayed with the Bernadottes, bequeathing it to her great-niece, Crown Princess Victoria [7]. Victoria wore the tiara for the first time in public at her sister’s wedding this summer (see the photograph at left) — a lovely gesture that provided a reminder of Lilian at an event she would certainly have loved to have attended [8].

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Digitally enhanced version of a photograph in the public domain; original image available here.
2. See this feature on Christie’s website for a photograph of the nearly identical necklace/tiara; the page also has information on the piece’s provenance.
3. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
4. Margaret’s second son, Prince Sigvard, lost his royal title when he married Erica Patzek in 1934; her fourth son, Prince Carl Johan, lost his title after marrying Kerstin Wijkmark in 1946. Only July 2, 1951, both Sigvard and Carl Johan were given the title of “Count of Wisborg” by Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg. Both men were therefore members of the unintroduced nobility of Sweden; see here for more.
5. See Sofia Svanholm’s obituary of Princess Lilian.
6. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
7. Details of the inheritance of Lilian’s jewels were made public last month. As expected, the laurel wreath tiara was listed as one of the possessions left to Crown Princess Victoria. But the will also notes that a “diadem of steel, white gold and diamonds” was also left to Victoria. Royal jewel lovers have been scratching their heads over this one, as it does not match a description of any tiaras we have seen in public before — the steel tiaras worn by the Bernadottes are already in the family jewel foundation. Could we perhaps have another mystery tiara waiting in the wings?
8. A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in December 2013.

Margaret of Connaught’s Khedive Tiara

by // Leave a Comment

Crown Princess Margareta, ca. 1908 [1]
Margaret of Connaught had a number of tiaras at her disposal during her tenure as crown princess of Sweden, but none of the others are quite as romantic and sentimental as today’s piece: the Cartier tiara given to her as a wedding gift by the Khedive of Egypt.
Margaret of Connaught [2]

The Khedive tiara’s story begins even before the piece’s creation. Margaret, the niece of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, was on a royal tour with her parents, who wanted to marry their daughters off to suitable royal spouses. They had their eye on the future king of Sweden, Gustaf VI Adolf, as a prospective partner for Margaret’s sister, Princess Patricia. They rendezvous-ed with Gustaf Adolf in Cairo, where he immediately fell in love — but with the wrong sister. It didn’t matter, in the end; Margaret was in love with him, too. Gustaf Adolf proposed to her during a dinner at the British consulate in Cairo, and the two were married at Windsor in 1905.

As the young couple had met in his country, it was important that the Khedive of Egypt — the governor of the country, which was ruled by the British at the time — give them a suitable wedding present. He commissioned Cartier to make this tiara for the occasion. The piece, which has alternately been described as a scroll tiara and as a tiara featuring marguerite motifs, bears considerable similarity to another piece made for the Egyptians at roughly the same time: Princess Shwikar’s tiara. That piece has never been firmly attributed to Cartier, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the same jeweler was behind both sparklers.

Margaret wore the piece during her time as Sweden’s crown princess, both as a tiara and as a dress ornament. You can see her wearing the Khedive on the bodice of her dress in the portrait shown at left above (where she wears the diamond tiara given to her by her parents as a diadem). The way that Margaret has positioned the piece in the portrait fits with its depiction in the illustrated guide to her wedding gifts (see below). When worn as a tiara, the piece is flipped so that the scroll elements are at the base.

Illustration of the tiara/ornament from Margaret of Connaught’s wedding gifts [3]
Unfortunately, Margaret had little time to experiment with her tiara collection. When she died in 1920, this tiara was one of the jewels that was inherited by her only daughter, Princess Ingrid. She brought the tiara with her to Denmark when she married Crown Prince Frederik (later Frederik IX) in 1935. Ingrid didn’t wear this piece on her wedding day [4], but it was through her influence that it has become the official wedding tiara for all of her female descendants in the years since.

Ingrid of Denmark [5]

So far, the bridal wearers of the Khedive have been Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (see here); Princess Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (see here); Benedikte’s two daughters, Princess Alexandra (here) and Princess Nathalie (here); Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (see here); and her elder daughter, Princess Alexia (here). Anne-Marie’s younger daughter, Princess Theodora, will also be eligible to wear the tiara if she marries. After Ingrid’s death in 2000, she left the tiara to her younger daughter, Anne-Marie, the former queen of Greece. Anne-Marie has had alterations made to the base of the piece [6], so that it sits much higher now on the wearer’s head (you can clearly see these changes in wedding photos of Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, the only bride to have worn it so far after it was altered).

It will be extremely interesting to see what happens to the Khedive tiara in the next generation. Will Anne-Marie leave it to one of her daughters, who are no longer princesses of a reigning monarchy? Will it be returned to the Danes, to preserve it officially as a wedding tiara for the next generation of royal brides? (That will include three Danish princesses — Isabella, Josephine, and Athena — as well as the granddaughters of Benedikte and Anne-Marie.) Cases like the Khedive, which has both historical and familial importance, make me wish that Ingrid had followed the example of Juliana of the Netherlands and set up a foundation for her jewelry. But for now, only time will tell [7].

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped version of photograph in the public domain; source here. (The Grand Ladies website suggests that the photograph may have been made to advertise Margaret to potential grooms, but if the photo really was taken in 1908, that’s not possible.)
2. Portrait of Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden by Axel Jungstedt, ca. 1909; source here.
3. Detail of the illustrated newspaper guide to Margaret’s wedding gifts; a full version of the image available here.
4. Here’s an image of Frederik and Ingrid on their wedding day in 1935. While neither Margaret nor Ingrid wore the Khedive as a bridal tiara, they both wore the same Irish lace veil that Margaret had been given as a wedding gift. All of Ingrid’s female descendants, plus Crown Princess Mary, have also worn the veil on their wedding days. In a bit of morbid trivia, the same veil covered Margaret of Connaught’s body in her coffin, though the veil was removed before the coffin was closed so that it could be given to Ingrid.
5. Cropped version of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
6. See the tiara’s new base here.
7. A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in February 2013.