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One of the prettiest, most wearable sets of royal amethysts belongs to a very bejeweled Danish princess. Here’s the history behind Princess Benedikte’s gorgeous amethyst demi-parure.
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The set, which includes a necklace, a bracelet, a pair of earrings, and a brooch with a detachable pendant, originally belonged to Benedikte’s mother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark. In his book on Denmark’s royal jewels, Bjarne Steen Jensen speculates that the set was made in the late nineteenth-century, but it was only acquired by Ingrid in the 1970s.
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Here’s a closer view of the necklace. Although Jensen states that the stones in the suite are cabochons, this view shows that they are indeed faceted. Small diamond-set spacer elements sit between each gorgeous purple amethyst. The gold setting helps bring out the violet color of the gems.
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And here’s a good view of one of the earrings, which have diamonds set on the stud portion of the pair.
During Queen Ingrid’s lifetime, Benedikte often borrowed the amethysts from her mother. After Ingrid’s death in 2000, she inherited the jewels. Two years later, she wore the amethysts with the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Fringe Tiara at the Nobel Prize banquet in Stockholm; on this occasion, she added the brooch pendant to the necklace.
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Benedikte also wore the necklace and the tiara with a deep purple gown during the celebrations for Queen Margrethe II’s Ruby Jubilee in January 2012. On this occasion, she chose to wear her mother’s diamond fan earrings with the necklace instead of the matching amethyst earrings.
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