Princess Benedikte’s Gorgeous Royal Amethysts

Princess Benedikte wore the amethyst necklace, plus lots of excellent all-diamond pieces, for a banquet at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen in January 2012. The occasion was the Ruby Jubilee of her elder sister, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of her accession to the throne. Benedikte attended with other members of the Danish royal family, as well as royals from across Europe. Above, she’s pictured at the banquet with her nephew, Crown Prince Frederik.

She arrived for the banquet with her husband, Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. She wore a gorgeous deep purple dress with a stripe design in velvet. Both she and Richard wore the collar of the highest decoration in Denmark, the Order of the Elephant, plus additional order insignia.

Princess Benedikte accessorized with jewelry from both the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Danish collections. Her tiara, the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Fringe Tiara, is a classic diamond fringe made in 1905 by Koch. Prince Richard inherited the tiara from his grandmother in 1976, and Benedikte has worn it in both tiara and necklace settings ever since.

With the tiara, Benedikte wore her diamond and amethyst necklace, which she inherited from her mother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark, in 2000. The necklace is part of a larger demi-parure of amethyst jewels, which includes a pair of earrings, a bracelet, and a brooch with a pendant. Queen Ingrid reportedly acquired the set in the 1970s, though jewel historians like Bjarne Steen Jensen have speculated that the suite was made much earlier, perhaps in the nineteenth century.

She also added two more pieces with Danish royal provenance to her ensemble for the banquet. Her earrings, which have a diamond fan design, also belonged to Queen Ingrid. And the diamond bracelets worn on her right wrist are both from a larger sautoir that belonged to her grandmother, Queen Alexandrine of Denmark.