This weekend, the royal court of Norway treated us to a new set of portraits of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, including some dazzling images featuring royal tiaras.
The new official portraits of the couple were taken by Dusan Reljin and published by the royal court. There are both gala images in the set and more casual pictures. This beautiful photograph shows Crown Prince Haakon wearing his full gala uniform and Crown Princess Mette-Marit in a striking red ballgown. Both are wearing their orders and decorations, and Mette-Marit is decked out in some gorgeous gala jewelry as well.
Here’s a closer look at Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s jewels from the portraits in the red gown. She’s wearing her wedding tiara, the Diamond Daisy Bandeau, which was a gift from her parents-in-law, King Harald V and Queen Sonja, back in th summer of 2001. With the tiara, she has added Crown Princess Märtha’s Silver Wedding Earrings.
The classic diamond chandelier earrings were given to Crown Princess Märtha by her husband, King Olav V, to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in 1954. Sadly, she died less than a month later. The earrings were later worn by Queen Sonja and Princess Märtha Louise, and in 2001, King Harald and Queen Sonja also gave the earrings to Mette-Marit as part of her wedding present.
The next gala portrait of the Crown Princess shows her wearing the same gown that she wore in October 2023 for the 18th birthday celebrations for Crown Prince Christian of Denmark.
This time around, though, she wore different jewels with the dress. She reached for the tiara and earrings from the Norwegian Amethyst Parure, a modern set that entered the family’s collection in the 1990s. She also wore the gorgeous aquamarine and diamond brooch that belonged to Queen Maud of Norway.
The rest of her jewels also include some points of interest. She wears a diamond bracelet on her right wrist (also worn above in the other gala portraits) and a gold bangle with a large cameo and diamond badge on her left. The badge in question is from the Order of Victoria & Albert. It belonged to Queen Maud, and it was later inherited by Princess Astrid, who had it mounted on a bracelet. She gave the badge and the bracelet fitting to Princess Ingrid Alexandra as a confirmation present in 2019. Since then, Mette-Marit has borrowed it from her daughter on several occasions.
The Norwegian jewelry historian Trond Noren Isaksen also links the large diamond ring on Mette-Marit’s left hand to Queen Maud. He argues that it’s likely the same diamond that was given to Queen Maud as a wedding present by William Waldorf Astor (later Viscount Astor) in the summer of 1896.
There were also slightly more casual portraits of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess released by the royal court, featuring the couple in their signature sleek, smart Scandinavian day attire.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit did manage to sneak in two more interesting jewelry moments into these more casual portraits as well.
With her white day dress, she again wore the spectacular diamond ring that may have come from the collection of Queen Maud of Norway. Her other ring, also worn in many of these other images, is a Clash de Cartier ring in yellow gold.
Another yellow gold piece took center stage in this last major portrait moment. Mette-Marit wore a trendy yellow gold chain necklace with a radiant heart pendant featuring the initial H (for Haakon, of course). The necklace comes from Foundrae, and Mette-Marit has worn it on numerous recent occasions. In May 2022, we discussed the pendant when she wore it on a sautoir-length chain during a visit with Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden in Stockholm.
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