Tiara Time Machine: Queen Silvia at the 2006 Nobels

Queen Silvia arrived for the Nobel Prize celebrations on December 10, 2006, wearing a bright white pleated evening gown by Yuki. She paired silver shoes and a matching clutch bag with the dress, and she also wore the sash and star of the Order of the Seraphim pinned to the gown.

With the dress, Silvia wore one of the grandest suites of jewelry in the Bernadotte collection. The Leuchtenberg Sapphires were brought to Stockholm by Princess Josephine of Leuchtenberg, who became Queen Josefina of Sweden through her marriage to King Oscar I. The gorgeous jewels, which date to 1810, had been a gift from Princess Josephine’s grandmother, Empress Josephine of France, to her mother, Princess Augusta of Bavaria, on the birth of Augusta’s son, Prince Auguste.

For this Nobel Prize celebration, Queen Silvia wore several pieces from the sapphire parure, including the tiara, the necklace, the earrings, and the brooch. This image from the dinner also gives you a good look at King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Royal Family Order, which Silvia pinned to the bodice of her dress.

Here’s a side view of Silvia’s tiara and jewels from the dinner. The Leuchtenberg Sapphire Parure Tiara is an unusually flexible diadem. In its case, it lays completely flat. The flexibility allows it to mold comfortably to the wearer’s head, and to travel easily.

This view from the Nobel Prize ceremony that evening shows that Silvia also wore two hairpins from the set in the back of her hair, and she used a small diamond brooch to secure the back of her order sash.

She finished off the look with bracelets and rings, including a slim gold bangle on her left wrist, and one of the large diamond bracelets from the family vaults on her right arm. The diamond bracelet, which belonged to Queen Sofia of Sweden, is part of the family’s jewelry foundation.