On Thursday, Luxembourg’s Grand Ducal Palace was sparkling for a state banquet, with a pair of heirloom tiaras on display.
On February 29, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg hosted a state banquet in honor of their visiting guests, President Petr Pavel of the Czech Republic and his wife, Eva Pavlova. They were joined by the Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess for the white-tie dinner.
For the banquet, both Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie wore spectacular antique jewels from the family collection, including a pair of gorgeous tiaras.
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa wore a dark blue evening gown with beaded cuffs and silver accessories. She also wore the insignia of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau.
The Grand Duchess opted for jewelry set with diamonds, sapphires, and pearls to accompany her ensemble. The spotlight piece was the Belgian Scroll Tiara, which has been one of Maria Teresa’s favorite diadems for more than a decade.
The tiara was a wedding gift from the Société Générale, a French bank, to Princess Josephine-Charlotte of Belgium when she married the future Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg in 1953. Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte wore the tiara for the rest of her life, passing it along to her son, Grand Duke Henri, after her death in 2005.
The family initially planned to sell the tiara after Josephine-Charlotte’s death, but the sale was canceled after members of the public expressed disapproval. Some of the pieces of the late Grand Duchess’s death were later privately sold, but the tiara remains with the family today. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa has been the primary wearer of the jewel for almost two decades now, and it’s clearly one of her favorite jewels.
For Thursday’s banquet, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa paired the tiara with two diamond necklaces and diamond and sapphire earrings. The earrings, which feature an interesting double sapphire cluster stud, are also from the family collection. (You’ll be able to spot them on Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte in the photograph above.) Maria Teresa also used an antique brooch to secure her order sash. The diamond and pearl brooch, made in the shape of a fleur-de-lis, belonged to Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte’s grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden.
Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie was also elegant in spectacular jewelry from the royal vaults, including a tiara that she wore in public for the very first time at the banquet.
Stephanie chose a sleek green velvet gown for the banquet. The insignia of the Order of Adolphe of Nassau was pinned to the dress. She echoed the green color of the gown with her emerald and diamond jewels, including the fabulous Chaumet Emerald Tiara.
The jewel is an iconic example of Art Deco design. It features an egg-sized cabochon emerald nestled in a setting of complicated diamond scrolls. Another large diamond anchors the emerald, an more diamonds rise to a point above the gleaming cabochon. The first member of the grand ducal family who was photographed in the tiara was Grand Duchess Charlotte, who reigned in Luxembourg from 1919 until 1964. Above, she wears the tiara during a visit from Queen Juliana of the Netherlands to Luxembourg in 1951.
The next wearer of the tiara was Charlotte’s daughter-in-law, Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte. She liked to pair the tiara with emerald and diamond pieces that she had inherited from her late mother, Queen Astrid of Belgium. She combines the tiara with some of those jewels in this picture, taken during a state visit with her uncle, King Olav V of Norway, in Oslo in 1990.
Today, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa is also the primary wearer of the emerald tiara. She made a particularly memorable appearance in the jewel in 2011 in Sweden during the Nobel Prize celebrations.
She also likes to pair the tiara with other emerald jewels from the collection, including this lovely pair of diamond and emerald earrings, worn here in Paris in 2018.
In January 2023, Maria Teresa loaned the emerald tiara to her daughter, Princess Alexandra, to wear for the New Year gala at the Grand Ducal Palace. Alexandra also wore the emerald and diamond earrings and an emerald and diamond bracelet with the tiara.
And now, Princess Stephanie has also made her debut in the jewel. She also wore the emerald and diamond earrings and emerald and diamond bracelet, plus a diamond floral brooch. As Hereditary Grand Duchess, Stephanie will one day have access to all of the grand pieces in the family vaults. She’s now been the wife of the heir to the throne for more than a decade, and it’s absolutely delightful to see her bringing out more and more spectacular jewelry pieces for gala occasions.
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