Queen Anne-Marie’s Outstanding Ruby Olive Wreath Tiara

Our royal flashback today takes us to the 60th birthday celebrations for King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in April 2006. King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie, the former King and Queen of the Hellenes, were on the guest list for a concert given in Stockholm as part of the festivities. Both are related to King Carl Gustaf, and Anne-Marie particularly closely. (They’re first cousins.)

Both Constantine and Anne-Marie were dressed in their best gala attire for the concert. Constantine wore, among other decorations, the sash and star of Sweden’s Order of the Seraphim, while Anne-Marie’s pale mauve/lavender gown was decorated with the sash and star of Greece’s Order of the Redeemer.

With her sparkling gown, Queen Anne-Marie wore pieces from a parure of diamond and ruby jewelry that she and Constantine inherited from his mother, Queen Friederike of the Hellenes. The set includes a large and unique tiara shaped like a wreath of olive branches, with red rubies representing the Kalamata olives that are so famously associated with Greece. The set of jewels originally belonged to Queen Olga, the Russian-born wife of King George I of the Hellenes.

Queen Anne-Marie also wore other pieces from Olga’s ruby and diamond set for the concert, including the earrings, necklace, and brooch. She finished off the look with a ruby and diamond bracelet on her right wrist.