A Sparkling Heirloom Bow Brooch Worn by Three Generations of Greek Royal Women

Today, Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark–daughter of the last Greek king and niece of the former Queens of Denmark and Spain–celebrates her birthday. In her honor, we’ve got a look today at an heirloom piece of royal jewelry that she has worn often for gala occasions.

The brooch is a classic design: a small, neat diamond bow. The piece features four loops, with the top two slightly smaller than the bottom two, and a large diamond set in a cluster of stones in the center of the piece. A loop below the large diamond allows the piece to be worn with various pendants.

The brooch was often pictured on Alexia’s grandmother, the Hanoverian-born Queen Friederike of the Hellenes. She wore the brooch for both day and evening occasions, most often with a diamond drop pendant, but occasionally with other pendant options as well. Here, in a gala portrait taken in the 1940s, she uses the bow to gather the sash of the Order of the Redeemer.

Here’s another photo in color from the same portrait sitting. You can see the diamond pendant worn with the brooch more clearly here, as well as the other jewels paired with the brooch–Queen Sophie’s Diamond Tiara and a multi-stranded pearl necklace–in more detail as well.

The brooch was worn next by Queen Friederike’s daughter-in-law, the Danish-born Queen Anne-Marie. In May 2008, she paired the brooch with additional diamond jewels, including the Khedive of Egypt Tiara, for the wedding of her nephew, Prince Joachim of Denmark, and Marie Cavallier.

More recently, we’ve seen Anne-Marie’s elder daughter, Princess Alexia, make several appearances in the brooch. She wore the brooch with her diamond tiara and pearl drop earrings for the wedding of her second cousin, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, to Daniel Westling in June 2010.

The following summer, she wore the brooch pinned to the same silver sequin gown for the wedding of one of her first cousins, Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, in Germany.

And in September 2022, Alexia wore the brooch with diamond earrings and the Khedive of Egypt Tiara in Copenhagen for a gala concert celebrating the Golden Jubilee of her aunt, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Let’s hope we see it pop up at more glittering family functions soon!