The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: May 16-22

by // Leave a Comment

May 16-22, 2014
This week’s roundup of royal jewel news includes an anniversary gift, an heirloom brooch, and a set of regalia back from the grave…

10. Although the super-packed June schedule for the Windsors (Garter Day, Trooping the Colour, Ascot, D-Day Celebrations) is still a week or so away, Queen Elizabeth II has been busy with engagements already. For a visit to the HMS Lancaster in Portsmouth on Tuesday, she sported one of Queen Victoria’s bow brooches.

9. Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands has been visiting Sint Maarten in the Caribbean this week. While visiting the Royal Youth Parliament on Tuesday, she wore a lovely set of lapis lazuli jewels, plus a floral brooch.

8. Royals from Denmark and Sweden were on hand to help the Norwegian royal family celebrate the country’s constitutional anniversary this weekend. Once again, Queen Margrethe turned to her trusty modern turquoise set for the celebrations in Eidsvoll on Saturday. She also added a golden ornament to her hair.

7. We talked quite a bit here last week about the tenth wedding anniversary of the Danish crown princely couple; the pair also marked the anniversary with gifts. Mary received a new piece of jewelry from Frederik: a new bracelet, commissioned from Ragnar R. Jørgensen, that features silhouette portraits of their four children. The bracelet, which is made of gold and black enamel, resembles early nineteenth-century cameo jewelry (like the set owned today by the Bernadottes). Here’s the best image I could find so far.

6. She’s already something of a mini royal superstar, but Princess Estelle of Sweden didn’t carry out her first formal engagement until Saturday, when she opened the Fairytale Path in Mjolby, accompanied by her parents. Both Estelle and her mother chose simple jewelry: a gold necklace for Estelle and diamond stud earrings for Victoria.

5. Some royal jewels aren’t intended to be seen again by the public after a monarch is buried. That was surely the case for Emperor Henry VII of the Holy Roman Empire, who was laid to rest in 1315 in the Duomo in Pisa, Italy. Recently, the grave was exhumed, and a simple crown, plus an orb and scepter, were found with the emperor’s remains. Here’s more (in Italian).

4. Royal tours by members of the British royal family not named William, Kate, or George get comparatively little fanfare, but the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have been in Canada this week, visiting a number of provinces and stirring up the occasional controversy. Not controversial to me, however, was Camilla’s choice of brooch for a visit to the Winnipeg Ballet on Wednesday: her gold Van Cleef & Arpels ballerina brooch, which is set with sapphires, diamonds, and rubies. (Psst: stay tuned for a bigger overview of Camilla’s tour jewelry this weekend!)

3. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, president of the Red Cross of Luxembourg, honored the grand duchy’s blood donors on Sunday. She wore a striking set of blue and tortoiseshell costume jewelry, including earrings and a necklace. She’ll almost certainly be breaking out more jewels in the coming days, as the grand ducal family will be attending both Prince Gabriel’s first communion on Saturday and the Closing of the Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg on Sunday.

2. Once again, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands had an awfully sparkling week. My favorite of her glittering appearances was Thursday’s appearance at an anniversary symphony concert, where she wore blue jewels to contrast with her white gown.

1. We celebrated the wedding anniversary of the Prince and Princess of Asturias in style this week (looking at her bridal tiara and at the Mad Hattery that the guests sported!). The couple celebrated with a visit to Toledo to see an El Greco exhibition, where Letizia wore low-key jewelry. But earlier in the week, she sported a rather lovely pair of pendant earrings (that look to me to be set with diamonds and rubies) at a dinner honoring the business community in Seville. Love seeing Letizia wear a bit more bling!

This Week in Royal Jewels: May 9-15

by // Leave a Comment

May 9-15, 2014

This week’s news includes a wedding anniversary, a state visit, and the sale of an heirloom jewel…

10. If you’ve been reading the blog this week, you’re more than aware that Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary on Wednesday. (If you missed them, our royal jewel rewind posts on the wedding are here and here.) To celebrate, the Danish court released new portraits of the couple. Mary wore one of her most sentimental pieces of jewelry: the sapphire and diamond brooch that once belonged to the Duchess of Connaught.

9. Queen Sofia of Spain presented trophies (including to a clearly impressed Rafa) at the Madrid Masters on Sunday, and she wore a rather sunny brooch for the event, along with her usual necklace and stack of bracelets.

8. Here’s an item we overlooked last week: the Prince and Princess of Monaco welcomed the president of Montenegro to the principality on May 6, and Charlene continued her trend of slowly incorporating more jewel pieces into her wardrobe by donning a pair of classic pearls stud earrings. And we’ve got an even better jewel opportunity for her on the horizon: it’s been announced that Albert and Charlene will visit the Netherlands during the first week of June. They’ll be there to officially open an exhibit about the late Princess Grace, but the event will also include a dinner at Apeldoorn. Fingers crossed for tiaras!

7. Speaking of the Dutch royals, Queen Maxima wore a pair of glittering jewelry pieces at the King Willem I Awards on Tuesday: diamond pendant earrings and the ears of wheat aigrette that Queen Emma received as a wedding gift in 1879.

6. At the beginning of an official visit to Poland on Monday, Crown Princess Mary selected only a simple pair of sparkling stud earrings to pair with her outfit. But this was an occasion where elaborate jewels would really not have been appropriate, as the couple were visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw.

5. More glamorous and splendid was the installation service for the Order of the Bath, held on Friday in the Henry VII Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey. Along with her robes, Queen Elizabeth II wore two items that belonged to our Magpie of the Month: the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara and Queen Mary’s Floret Earrings. For more on the Order of the Bath, check out my recent “Royalty by Numbers” post at The Royal Roundup.

4. After failing to sell during its first trip to the auction block, the garnet, diamond, and pearl kokoshnik tiara that belonged to the Rosenborgs (a junior noble branch of the Danish royal family) sold at Sotheby’s on Tuesday for just over $275,000. Here’s a link to my post on the rest of the royal jewels that were included in the auction.

3. A descendent of German royalty married the son of a British baron this weekend. Florence von Preussen wed the Hon. James Tollemache in Somerset. Marlene Eilers Koenig reports that the bride wore a tiara that belonged to her grandmother, Lady Brigid Guinness. Photos of the wedding (and especially of one guest in particular) are available here.

2. The Norwegian royals hosted the president of Israel this week, and the state banquet gave Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Astrid opportunities to don tiaras. Mette-Marit wore her wedding tiara, while Astrid wore her fabulously loony aigrette (which ranked high on our recent list of the top ten maddest tiaras!). Queen Sonja didn’t attend, reportedly because of a conflicting trip.

1. On Wednesday, the Dutch king and queen hosted the diplomatic corps for a gala dinner at the palace in Amsterdam. For the event, Queen Maxima brought out major jewels: the ruby parure made by Mellerio for Queen Emma in 1889.

This Week in Royal Jewels: May 2-8

by // Leave a Comment

May 2-8, 2014
It’s Friday yet again, magpies — time for another round of the week’s best bejeweled news!

10. A new portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by photographer David Bailey was released on Thursday. The photo, which was taken as a part of the GREAT Britain campaign, features the Queen wearing the George VI sapphires, a nineteenth-century suite of diamond and sapphire jewelry given to her as a wedding present by her father.

9. Queen Sofia of Spain was on hand for the presentation of her nation’s paralympic sailing team on Thursday in Valencia, and her sailboat brooches were quite appropriate for the occasion.

8. At a concert in Amsterdam on Thursday, Queen Maxima surprised royal watchers by recycling a dress first worn decades earlier by her mother-in-law. She accessorized the already-bejeweled dress with bracelets and a pair of dangling earrings.

7. We all know that connections to royal wearers significantly increase the values of pieces of jewelry, but even so, this is kind of staggering: apparently the sapphire and diamond engagement ring worn by both Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Cambridge is now worth an estimated £300,000 — approximately ten times its original price.

6. To celebrate Princess Benedikte’s seventieth birthday, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark bestowed the Order of the Dannebrog on her sister. The order honors those who have made major contributions to the nation, and as Benedikte continues to carry out engagements (and even serve as regent) in Denmark, I’d say she certainly meets the qualifications. The order has eight grand commanders: Queen Margrethe, Prince Henrik, Crown Prince Frederik, Prince Joachim, (the former) King Constantine II of Greece, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Harald V of Norway, and now Princess Benedikte.

5. Although she normally prefers very low-key jewelry, the Princess of Asturias added an unexpected ornament to her hair for an audience at Zarzuela Palace on Thursday: a thin gilded headband.

4. The Countess of Wessex found a cuddly friend on a visit to Newbury this week. If you peek past Rosie the guinea pig, you’ll catch a glimpse of her Heavenly Necklaces snowflake pendant.

3. Queen Elizabeth II debuted an apparently new brooch this week in Essex. The piece appears to feature daffodils, which may suggest a connection to Wales; indeed, the only time it’s been spotted before was in a portrait of the Queen commissioned by the Welsh Rugby Union to mark the 60th anniversary of her coronation.

2. On Tuesday, Queen Maxima wore a questionable hat a beautiful pair of pearl pendant earrings during a regional tour of The Achterhoek.

1. Leave it to the Luxembourgish royals to give us our tiara of the week! Grand Duchess Maria Teresa brought out the family’s aquamarine set during a state visit to Poland.