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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Archives for December 2018

Royal Peacock Jewels

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Wikimedia Commons, Sean Gallup/Getty Images, ROBIN UTRECHT/AFP/Getty Images

The gorgeous feathers of the peacock have provided design inspirations for artists for generations, including the makers of royal jewelry. Today, here’s a look at a trio of peacock-inspired jewels.

Wikimedia Commons
Queen Farida’s Wedding Tiara

Seventeen-year-old Safinaz Zulficar became Queen Farida when she married eighteen-year-old King Farouk of Egypt in Cairo in January 1938. On her wedding day, she was dripping in diamonds, including a massive tiara that with peacock and lotus inspired designs.

Wikimedia Commons

The diamond tiara may have been a wedding gift to Farida from her mother-in-law, Queen Nazli. Farida’s mother had once served as one of Nazli’s ladies-in-waiting.

Wikimedia Commons

For her wedding, Farida paired the peacock tiara with a magnificent diamond festoon necklace from Boucheron. The necklace was a wedding gift from her new husband, as was her couture wedding gown, bought from Worth in Paris.

Memory of Modern Egypt Digital Archive/Wikimedia Commons

Above, Farida wears the tiara at the couple’s wedding banquet. The couple had three daughters, but only a son could inherit the throne. Although she was extremely popular with the Egyptian public, Farouk divorced Farida on November 17, 1948. (On the same day, the Shah of Iran divorced Farouk’s sister, Fawzia; the two men had reportedly coordinated their announcements to divide the focus of the press.)

Memory of Modern Egypt Digital Archive/Wikimedia Commons

After her divorce, Farida’s peacock tiara apparently remained in the Egyptian royal collection. We don’t seem to know precisely what happened to it. Some believe it may have been sold at auction, while others hope that it may still remain tucked away in museum storage today, more than half a century after the monarchy was overthrown.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The Emerald Peacock Necklace Tiara

Made by Van Cleef and Arpels, this convertible necklace/tiara features diamond feathers culminating in a diamond and emerald peacock tail. The piece was commissioned in 1956 by Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg, who provided two pendants to be mined for gems to use in the new sparkler.

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

The convertible piece is still with the Luxembourgish grand ducal family today. It’s been worn in recent years by Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Princess Marie Astrid, and Princess Tessy.

DAVE CHAN/AFP/Getty Images
The Ruby Peacock Parure

The Dutch royal vaults contain a remarkable parure of peacock-inspired jewels set with diamonds and rubies, made in 1897 during the reign of Queen Wilhelmina.

Albert Nieboer/DPA Picture Alliance Archive/Alamy

The tiara from the suite features a peacock tail in its center, flanked by a series of scrolls, clusters, and floral designs. The center element of the tiara can be removed and worn separately.

OLAF KRAAK/AFP/Getty Images

The suite also includes a matching mirrored necklace (worn by Queen Juliana at her inauguration) and a large brooch, both of which feature peacock tail motifs in their designs.

The suite has been worn by numerous members of the royal family, and it’s now frequently sported by Queen Maxima. (Read more about it over here!)

Royal Rubies to Celebrate Spain’s Constitution

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Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images

On Thursday, the Spanish royal family gathered in Madrid to mark a very important milestone: the 40th anniversary of the nation’s constitution.

OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP/Getty Images

King Felipe and Queen Letizia marked the anniversary in parliament alongside Spain’s prime minister, the president of the nation’s congress, and other dignitaries.

Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images

For the celebrations, Letizia dressed in bright red, one of Spain’s national colors. Born in Asturias during the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano was six years old when the nation voted overwhelmingly to adopt its current constitution. Felipe, who was born a year before his father was designated as Franco’s heir, was ten years old when the constitution was approved by the Spanish people. In 1986, when he turned eighteen, Felipe appeared in parliament to swear his allegiance to the constitution, a requirement for him to officially become heir to the throne.

OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP/Getty Images

For Thursday’s ceremonies, which were held on the anniversary of the public referendum, Letizia wore a pair of symbolic earrings. They feature a diamond dove (a symbol of peace) holding a ruby wreath (a symbol of honor and victory). A bejeweled representation of peaceful victory is certainly appropriate for the anniversary of a transition to democracy. (And a fortieth anniversary, of course, is also a ruby jubilee!)

Intriguingly, though, the earrings have a less-than-democratic history: they were a gift from the Saudi royal family to Letizia’s mother-in-law, Queen Sofia. They came as part of a set that also includes a matching necklace. Letizia has made a pair of high profile appearances in the earrings previously. She wore them at the start of a state visit to Japan in April 2017, and later that same year, she wore them for a visit to parliament during the British state visit.

Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images

Felipe and Letizia’s daughters, the Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofia, were also present for the ceremonies at parliament.

OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP/Getty Images

As were two of the most pivotal royal figures from 1978: King Felipe’s parents, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.

King Juan Carlos (with the future King Felipe peeking out from beneath his arm) and Queen Sofia of Spain on the day of his religious enthronement ceremony in Madrid, November 1975 (AFP/Getty Images)

When Juan Carlos inherited control of Spain from Franco in 1975, he could easily have continued to exercise the kind of dictatorial power that Franco had held for four decades. But he didn’t. Instead, he helped facilitate a transition from dictatorship to democracy, transforming Spain into a modern constitutional democracy. Both Juan Carlos and Sofia knew they needed to be practical about their new roles — both had grown up amid plenty of royal turmoil, watching their Spanish and Greek relatives deal with the challenges of meshing monarchy with the modern world. (Sofia’s brother, King Constantine II of Greece, was dethroned permanently in 1973, barely two years before Juan Carlos succeeded to the Spanish throne.)

Juan Carlos’s father, the Count of Barcelona, had been a strong advocate for constitutional monarchy, and his son helped to establish a democratic system that continues in Spain to this day. Juan Carlos’s reign wasn’t always sunny or popular, and there were real problems of corruption often lurking just beneath the surface. But Thursday’s ceremony in parliament honored a decision that is surely one of the most important parts of his legacy.

Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images

Like her daughter-in-law, Queen Sofia chose jewels in Spain’s national colors for this day of commemorations. With her trademark gold earrings and bracelets, she also wore her pearl necklace with its modern diamond and ruby pendant. She inherited the pendant from her mother, Queen Friederike of Greece. (Intriguingly, Friederike was not exactly a proponent of democracy.)

Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images

The Spanish throne is still one of the more precarious perches in Europe, but this event attempted to underscore the monarchy’s role in creating a democratic society in Spain. The Spanish royal family has itself been somewhat fractured over the past several years, threatened by internal squabbles and domestic turmoil. On Thursday, however, they put forward a united front — surely trying to emphasize the continuity of the monarchy as a central part of Spanish democracy.