Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of a special day for the Danish royals: Queen Mary’s very first tiara appearance, during a gala to celebrate her forthcoming royal wedding. Let’s have a closer look at her inaugural tiara sparkle, shall we?
On May 11, 2004, Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson arrived for a gala dinner at Christiansborg Palace hosted by the Danish government. The dinner was one of the events held to celebrate the couple’s royal wedding, which took place three days later on May 14. The engaged couple arrived for the dinner with Frederik’s parents, Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik of Denmark. Margrethe gave a bejeweled nod to the importance of the government dinner by wearing the Danish Emerald Parure, one of the suites from the Danish crown jewel collection.
Both Crown Prince Frederik and Mary were dressed in gala attire for the white-tie event, including orders and decorations. They both wore the light blue sash and diamond star of Denmark’s highest order of chivalry, the Order of the Elephant. Mary received the order from her soon-to-be mother-in-law two days earlier, on May 9, 2004. Frederik had been made a Knight of the Order of the Elephant on January 14, 1972, the day he became Crown Prince of Denmark.
Crown Prince Frederik also wore the neck badge and star of the Order of the Dannebrog and several more medals. Among these were commemorative medals celebrating several important royal anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of Queen Ingrid’s arrival in Denmark (1985), Queen Margrethe’s 50th birthday (1990), Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik’s silver wedding anniversary (1992), Queen Margrethe’s Silver Jubilee (1997), the 100th anniversary of the birth of King Frederik IX (1999), and the Queen Ingrid Commemorative Medal (2001).
For the gala dinner, the future Crown Princess wore an elegant silver-blue brocade evening gown, made for her by the Danish artist and designer Malene Birger.
The gown was a lovely frame for the most important jewelry moment of the evening: Mary’s debut in the jewels of the Danish Ruby Parure. The suite was celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2004. Originally made for Désirée Clary Bernadotte (later Queen of Sweden) to wear for the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris in 1804, the set came to Copenhagen with Désirée’s great-granddaughter, Queen Lovisa of Denmark. The suite was later worn by both Queen Alexandrine and Queen Ingrid, who left the rubies in 2000 to her grandson, Crown Prince Frederik, in hopes that they would one day be worn by his future wife.
Those hopes came true on May 11, when Mary wore the tiara, earrings, and necklace from the ruby parure for the government gala dinner. The tiara was a later addition to the set, created for Queen Alexandrine using the currant-leaf hair ornaments from the original parure.
Mary’s hairstyle created a look that served as a frame and anchor for the large tiara, which Mary would later have downsized slightly to better fit her head. The moment was a passing of the royal jewelry torch. The rubies had been associated with Queen Ingrid for almost 70 years, and from that evening on, they were Mary’s signature set of royal jewelry.
Almost twenty years later, Queen Mary of Denmark continues to wear the rubies for important royal occasions. Earlier this week, we saw her bring out the tiara and jewels in Stockholm for the first state banquet of King Frederik X’s reign.
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