A Sparkling Set of Romanov Sapphires Worn by Denmark’s Retired Queen

Today, Queen Margrethe of Denmark celebrates her 84th birthday. Now retired, Margrethe has handed over many of her grand gala jewels to her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, but numerous pieces of personal jewelry remain in her collection, including a gorgeous suite of heirloom sapphires that she received as birthday and wedding gifts more than sixty years ago.

In April 1958, Princess Margrethe was heir to the Danish throne. She celebrated her 18th birthday on April 16 with her family, including her parents, King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid. They offered her a special gift: a gorgeous antique diamond and sapphire pendant.

The pendant belonged to Margrethe’s paternal grandmother, Queen Alexandrine of Denmark. It was part of a suite of sapphire jewelry, parts of which were often worn together as a stomacher ornament. She wears the stomacher above with her diamond fringe tiara, which was a legacy from her mother, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia. The sapphires are Russian in origin as well. In her book on Queen Margrethe’s jewels, Heidi Laura notes that some of the sapphires owned by Alexandrine were wedding gifts from Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodoronva, while others were inherited from Grand Duchess Anastasia.

Alexandrine also used the sapphires as a large pendant, suspended from a long sautoir-style necklace. She wears them in that format, again with the diamond fringe tiara, during her husband’s Silver Jubilee celebrations in Copenhagen in 1937.

When Queen Alexandrine passed away in 1952, the sapphires were inherited by her elder son, King Frederik IX. After giving the pendant from the set to Margrethe in 1958, there were still some of Alexandrine’s sapphires remaining in the royal vaults. When Margrethe announced her engagement to Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, Frederik and Ingrid decided to have the sapphires remodeled. They commissioned the court jeweler, A. Michelsen, to make a new necklace and earrings using the existing stones.

The result was an extremely versatile set of jewelry. The necklace could be worn in different lengths, with or without the original pendant attached. The individual sapphires could also be detached and worn as brooches, and the necklace can be worn at different lengths.

Here’s a lovely view of the earrings from the set. Because Queen Margrethe does not have pierced ears, the earrings feature clip fasteners with screw backs. Frederik and Ingrid presented the newly-remodeled jewels to Margrethe as a wedding present in 1967.

Almost a decade after receiving the original pendant, Margrethe now had a necklace and earrings to play with as well. The artistic monarch loves nothing more than a suite of jewelry that can be worn in different configurations, which makes this set particularly perfect for her. Above, in a portrait photograph taken shortly before her accession, she wears a longer setting of the necklace with the earrings and her mother’s Baden Palmette Tiara.

Here, she wears a shorter setting of the necklace with the earrings and Princess Dagmar’s Floral Tiara during King Olav V of Norway’s 75th birthday celebrations in the summer of 1978.

Here, by contrast, Margrethe wears the longer version of the necklace, complete with the pendant, for a dinner in 1970. You’ll note that, when worn with the pendant, the largest sapphire cluster on the necklace is switched to the back of the neck, and the pendant is hooked to one of the smaller clusters. Margrethe is also wearing the earrings here, plus another of her 18th birthday presents: Queen Alexandrine’s Diamond Drop Tiara.

Here, also in 1970, Margrethe wears the sapphires with the same tiara. This time, though, she’s demonstrating another setting. Instead of wearing the necklace, she has detached one of the sapphire clusters, pairing it with the pendant to be worn as a large brooch.

She also wears that larger brooch, plus the earrings and one of the smaller clusters on her sash, in Oslo during a different birthday celebration event in 1978. She’s also wearing Princess Dagmar’s Floral Tiara here. (And yes, that’s a young King Charles III sitting beside her.)

Here’s a charming appearance of two of the smaller clusters as a pair of brooches, worn during Margrethe’s first state visit to Sweden in April 1973.

Margrethe has continued to wear the sapphires often over the decades. She wore the shorter necklace and pendant with the earrings for the sovereign’s lunch at Buckingham Palace in London during the 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

On that occasion, we got a glimpse of the larger sapphire and diamond cluster sitting at the back of Margrethe’s neck.

But here, when the necklace was worn without the pendant for the royal birthday celebrations in Oslo in 2017, the largest cluster is worn front-and-center. This shot also shows off the earrings nicely, plus a diamond and sapphire cluster ring that Margrethe has often worn with the suite. Delightfully, Queen Margrethe has continued to make occasional public appearances since her abdication this January, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her bring out her grandmother’s Russian imperial sapphires for gala events in the future.

Our spectacular week of state visit jewels begins today when the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg arrive in Belgium. I’m going to do my darndest to cover the events in a timely manner, especially tonight’s tiaras, but I have to be away from my desk for most of the day. I’m hoping to get an article up later on this evening. Thanks for your patience, and I’ll see you then!