Last week, Queen Maxima made a stunning appearance at an awards ceremony, wearing magnificent diamond earrings and a brooch with incredible royal history.
On Thursday, Queen Maxima was on hand for the presentation of the King Willem I Awards in Zwolle. The foundation that organizes the awards presents three prizes every two years, recognizing companies that have demonstrated courageous innovation in their business practices. Above, Maxima is pictured with representatives from Fairphone, the prize winners from the sustainable entrepreneurship category.
For the awards ceremony, Maxima wore a modern jumpsuit with a one-shoulder bodice and a built-in cape. Mode Koningin Maxima tells us that the outfit comes from Natan, and the color is described as soft pink.
Maxima echoed that color with one of her bejeweled accessories for the evening. She added lots of spectacular diamonds to the outfit for the occasion: earrings, bracelets, rings, and part of one of the family’s most important heirloom corsage ornaments.
The diamond cluster earrings that Maxima wore with the ensemble are, I believe, two of the smaller (!) clusters from the top of the Stuart Tiara. Maxima has also worn a pair of the larger clusters from the tiara as earrings.
The brooch that Maxima pinned to her shoulder has an even longer Dutch royal history. It’s the top portion of the fabulous diamond and pearl devant de corsage that belonged to Queen Sophie of the Netherlands, the German-born first wife of King Willem III.
The entire corsage ornament features ribbon elements in its design, especially this elaborate top portion. The center of the piece is set with a gorgeous blush pink diamond, perfectly complementing the color of Maxima’s outfit for the evening.
Here’s a glimpse of the entire corsage ornament on its first owner, Queen Sophie, from an engraving made sometime between the 1850s and 1870s. The full devant de corsage includes a long pendant section made of diamonds and pear-shaped pearl drops.
After Sophie’s death, the corsage ornament stayed with the Dutch royal family. It eventually arrived in the collection of Queen Wilhelmina, who was the daughter of King Willem III and his second wife, Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Almost a century after that engraving of Queen Sophie was made, Wilhelmina wears the devant de corsage in this photograph from 1948.
The entire corsage remains in the Dutch royal collection today, and Queen Maxima has worn it in various configurations over the years. Above, she wears a more complete version of the jewel during the Dutch state visit to Austria in 2022. It’s not the entire ornament, however, as she’s left off one of the pearl drops for this particular appearance. She’s also worn the full devant de corsage for gala events during the past decade.
With the earrings and the brooch, Maxima also wore several diamond bracelets and a pair of important diamond rings. On her left wrist, she wore her diamond family initial bracelet and her engagement and wedding rings. Her engagement ring, appropriate for a bride of the House of Orange, is set with a rare orange diamond.
She also added two diamond bracelets to her right wrist, including her diamond wedding bracelet. The diamond ring she wore on her right hand is also a special family piece. The central diamond was originally part of the large bracelet given to Queen Juliana as a wedding present in 1936 by representatives from the Dutch East Indies, now part of the present-day nation of Indonesia. The enormous diamond bracelet was eventually dismantled and remade as two smaller, more wearable bracelets, while the large octagonal diamond from the center of the original bracelet was set in this ring.
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