It’s finally feeling like winter where I live, so what better time than now to highlight some major royal ice? This week, we’re marveling at some of the biggest diamond tiaras in royal vaults, starting off with an incredible sparkling heirloom from Luxembourg.
Luxembourg may be a tiny grand duchy, but its royal collection boasts one of the very largest diamond tiaras in Europe. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa chose the tiara for an important state visit to the Netherlands in April 2006. She wore the jewel with additional diamond and pearl pieces for a state banquet in The Hague. It was, I believe, her very first appearance in the grand tiara.
The early nineteenth-century tiara, which is generally called the Empire Tiara, is simply enormous. At more than four inches tall, it’s a giant of the tiara world. Because of its size, the all-diamond tiara has plenty of room for the incorporation of numerous motifs, including geometric, anthemion, and scroll designs. On this occasion, Maria Teresa added even more sparkle with a pair of diamond necklaces, plus one of the family’s gorgeous, intricate diamond rose brooches.
She added a bit of elegant gleam with the family’s pearl drop earrings, plus a pearl bracelet on her right wrist. She also wore a diamond bracelet on her left wrist, and a diamond ring on her right hand. The crystal buttons on her pink evening gown provided even more sparkle.
Maria Teresa wasn’t the only one wearing a gorgeous tiara for the dinner. Princess Beatrix (then Queen Beatrix) wore the Pearl Button Tiara, Queen Maxima (then Princess Maxima) wore Queen Juliana’s aquamarines, and Princess Margriet wore diamond and sapphire jewels, including the all-diamond setting of the Dutch Emerald Parure Tiara.
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