Crown Princess Mary’s Edwardian Tiara

Crown Princess Mary’s Edwardian Tiara (Photo: MATHIAS LOEVGREEN BOJESEN/AFP/Getty Images)

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark has been slowly adding to her own small collection of tiaras since becoming a part of the Danish royal family. First, her husband presented her with his grandmother’s rubies; next, she received a diamond tiara from her in-laws; and then, she began wearing an innovative modern tiara that’s on long-term loan. Recently, she added another piece: a convertible tiara made during the Edwardian period.

Photo: Henning Bagger/AFP/Getty

The tiara is made of diamonds, rubies, and spinels, and it’s set in gold and silver. It can be taken off its frame and worn as a necklace; in fact, that’s how Mary wore it in public for the first time (at Aarhus in April 2015).

Image: Bruun Rasmussen auction catalogue

The Danish magazine Billed-Bladet reported that Mary purchased the tiara (and a pair of coordinating earrings) herself at auction. Both the tiara and earrings were sold by Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen in May 2012. You can read more about the auction notes for each piece in our post here, and here’s our post with information about the auction prices.

Image: Bruun Rasmussen auction catalogue

The tiara had to be repaired before it could be worn in public, as it was missing at least one gemstone. It’s possible that a new frame also had to be made for the piece, as one was not described in the lot notes.

Mary wore the piece as a tiara for the first time in March 2016 when she attended a banquet at Amalienborg Palace. She wore the tiara again in April during a state visit from the President of Mexico. And in July, she was photographed in the tiara for Vogue (see the image above), so the new piece is definitely a major part of her current rotation.