The Amazing Aquamarine Pendant Worn by Greece’s Last Queen

Queen Anne-Marie is the third daughter of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark. Her mother was born Princess Ingrid of Sweden, the only daughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and Princess Margaret of Connaught. Tragically, Ingrid lost her mother at the tender age of ten. She inherited a great deal of Margaret’s jewelry, and she used it throughout her life to remember her mother’s legacy.

Among the grand pieces that Ingrid inherited were a number of classic jewels, including her mother’s wedding pearls, the Khedive of Egypt Tiara, the Turquoise Daisy Bandeau, and the Connaught Sapphire Brooch. In that collection was also a diamond and aquamarine jewel, featuring diamond ribbon designs and a large, heart-shaped aquamarine stone. Over at Royal Magazin, Ursula writes that the pendant was made for Margaret around 1908 by Kreuter & Co., a German jewelry firm that often worked in partnership with Koch. (She attributes the Swedish Aquamarine Kokoshnik, which was worn by Margaret with the pendant on at least one occasion, to the same source.)

Ingrid married King Frederik IX of Denmark and had three daughters. The youngest, Anne-Marie, received the heart-shaped aquamarine pendant. We don’t know exactly when Ingrid gifted the jewel to her daughter, but it was before Anne-Marie’s marriage to King Constantine II of Greece in September 1964. Anne-Marie suspended the aquamarine and diamond pendant from a pearl necklace for portraits taken in Corfu during the summer before the couple’s wedding.

Here’s a closer look at the pendant from those engagement portraits. She’s also wearing a gold and aquamarine cuff bracelet on her right wrist in the images.

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And here’s a color image from the same photo session. The bright blue pendant coordinates nicely with the yellow dress chosen by the princess for the portraits.

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Eighteen-year-old Anne-Marie became Queen of Greece when she married Constantine in 1964, and she wore the pendant for various official gala events during their brief tenure on the Hellenic throne. You’ll spot the pendant hanging from her necklace (her portion of Queen Alexandrine’s Diamond Sautoir) in this photograph, taken during a New Year reception in 1965. The large rectangular brooch that she’s used here to secure her order sash is also set with an aquamarine.

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The pendant, and her other aquamarine jewels, remained in Queen Anne-Marie’s collection even after she and her family went into exile in 1967. She has continued to wear it for big family occasions over the years. Above, she’s pictured wearing the pendant with Queen Alexandrine’s Sautoir Necklace and diamond earrings for King Constantine’s 50th birthday celebration in London in June 1990.

And here, more than a decade later, she wears the pendant on a diamond necklace for the wedding of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway in Oslo in August 2001.

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Here’s another view of the pendant from the Norwegian royal wedding. She paired the jewel with the Khedive of Egypt Tiara, which she had recently inherited from her mother, and diamond earrings.

One of Anne-Marie’s most prominent recent appearances in the pendant took place ten years ago, when she attended a pre-wedding gala for Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg in October 2012.

Queen Anne-Marie wore the pendant with Queen Alexandrine’s Sautoir Necklace and the Khedive of Egypt Tiara. She also pinned her diamond and aquamarine brooch at her waist and wore the same gold and aquamarine bracelet she’d donned for her engagement portraits almost 50 years earlier.

We most recently saw Queen Anne-Marie wearing the aquamarine and diamond pendant at the 50th birthday gala for her nephew, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, in May 2018. She again paired the jewel with the Khedive of Egypt Tiara and Queen Alexandrine’s Sautoir Necklace—but this time around, she used the pendant as a separate brooch, pinning it to her dress instead of suspending it from her necklace.