When Crown Princess Mette-Marit gussies up for a white-tie event, she often selects a specific pair of diamond earrings. And no wonder — these petite diamond chandelier ornaments are seriously sparkling and seriously pedigreed.
In 1954, Crown Prince Olav of Norway — who would later reign as King Olav V — was on the hunt for a silver wedding anniversary present for his wife, Crown Princess Märtha. Olav and Märtha, who was a Swedish princess, married on March 21, 1929, in Oslo. He selected these diamond chandelier earrings as her anniversary present, but sadly, Märtha never got to wear them. She died of cancer exactly one month after their anniversary.
Fast forward half a century, and a new crown princess was joining the Norwegian royal family. Olav and Märtha’s son, King Harald V, and his wife, Queen Sonja, needed a wedding present for their new daughter-in-law, Mette-Marit. They decided to give her Crown Princess Märtha’s silver anniversary earrings.
It was a sentimental gift, but also a fitting one: the diamond earrings would finally be worn by a Norwegian crown princess, albeit two generations later. Mette-Marit debuted the earrings at a gala dinner held the night before her wedding in August 2001. She paired them with Queen Maud’s Vifte tiara/necklace.
Since then, the earrings have been a major part of Mette-Marit’s jewelry collection. Above, she wears them with her wedding tiara at the wedding of her sister-in-law, Princess Märtha Louise.
She also wore the earrings with her wedding tiara at another important Scandinavian wedding: the 2004 nuptials of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
She wore the earrings to commemorate the anniversary of Norway’s independence…
…and on a state visit to the United Kingdom (birthplace of the buyer of the earrings, King Olav).
Mette-Marit has slowly been adding new pairs of lovely earrings to her jewelry box over the years, but for me, these are hard to top!
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