It’s February, which means that it’s time for a new Magpie of the Month! Crown Princess Mary, who celebrates her birthday today, is our royal lady for February. I’m pretty excited to delve into her jewelry box with all of you, and today, we’re kicking things off with a look at her collection of aquamarine jewels.
In 2004, shortly before her wedding, Mary Donaldson wore a demi-parure of aquamarine jewels during the Romanian state visit. The set includes a pair of earrings with a large aquamarine drop and a pearl choker with an aquamarine clasp.
She’d already worn the earrings at a gala event in Denmark a few months before. I don’t think that the provenance of these pieces has ever been confirmed, but everything I’ve read suggests that they were a gift from Crown Prince Frederik, possibly an engagement present.
The aquamarine clasp of the pearl choker appears to have surrounding stones of a deeper blue hue, perhaps sapphires.
The darker blue stones are also set within the strands of pearls.
While Mary often wears the earrings with the choker, she also wears them separately, as she did for the 70th birthday celebrations of King Harald of Norway.
A few years after her wedding, Mary began wearing a large aquamarine ring with the other pieces from the set.
She also added another pair of aquamarine earrings to her collection, this time in a girandole shape with diamonds.
Mary frequently pairs the girandole earrings with the all-diamond version of her wedding tiara.
She’s even depicted wearing the earrings in a portrait that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Mary frequently mixes and matches her various aquamarine pieces. Here, she wears the girandole earrings with the pearl choker and the large aquamarine ring.
I’m a big fan of Mary’s aquamarines, and I only wish she had a tiara to go along with them. What kind of sparkler would you like to see added to this married parure? I’m envisioning something like the gorgeous aquamarine kokoshnik that belonged to Alexandra Feodorovna.
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