Dazzling Diamond Jewels–and an Heirloom Tiara!–for Queen Mary in Copenhagen

Today in Copenhagen, the King and Queen of Denmark hosted the first incoming state visit of his reign, welcoming the President of Iceland during a day filled with sparkling tiaras and jewels.

King Frederik X and Queen Mary welcomed President Halla Tómasdóttir and her husband, Björn Skúlason, to Copenhagen on Tuesday for the start of a state visit between the two heads of state. The choice of Iceland as the first nation to visit the new King and Queen is a significant one, because until 1944, the Danish monarch was also King of Iceland. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Iceland.

The program on the first day of the state visit included several stops for the royal and presidential couples, starting with a wreath-laying ceremony, followed by an official welcome at Amalienborg. The day continued with several more engagements, including a luncheon at an Icelandic cultural center and a visit to the Arnamagnæanske Samling at the University of Copenhagen.

For the first day of the visit, Queen Mary wore a familiar purple-blue ensemble and a coordinating headpiece. We’ve seen her wear the outfit on previous occasions, including for the coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in May 2023 and for a celebratory service at Aarhus Cathedral earlier this year. This time, she accessorized with her diamond floral stud earrings, a necklace with purple gemstone pendants, and a large, colorful brooch from her collection.

We’ve seen her wear the brooch, which appears to have a large cabochon amethyst as its center stone, on multiple occasions. Here, she wears it for the opening of parliament in October 2022.

On Tuesday evening, the King and Queen hosted a glittering state banquet for their presidential guests at Christiansborg palace in Copenhagen. For the dinner, Queen Mary wore a pair of separates from her closet: a glittering, off-the-shoulder top from Jesper Høvring, paired with an Oscar de La Renta skirt, per UFO No More. Both pieces have been in her wardrobe for more than a decade.

She accessorized with a special, sparkling tiara reserved for the use of the Queen of Denmark: the diamond and pearl tiara from the Pearl Poiré Parure.

Here’s a closer look at the tiara, which was made in 1825, likely in Germany, for Princess Louise of Prussia, who was the grandmother of Queen Lovisa of Denmark. It has been part of the Danish family collection since the 1870s. When Queen Lovisa died in 1926, she bequeathed the tiara to the Danish Royal Property Trust (the Løsørefideikommis). Generally, the pieces in that trust are reserved for the use of the Queen of Denmark.

After she announced her abdication on New Year’s Eve, Queen Margrethe wore the Pearl Poiré Tiara one final time during the New Year’s Levee in January. Afterward, the tiara was transferred to Queen Mary, who wore it for the first time in Oslo in May.

For Tuesday’s state banquet, Queen Mary paired the pearl and diamond tiara with more jewels reserved for the use of the Queen of Denmark: a necklace and earrings that also come from the Danish Royal Property Trust collection. 

Queen Mary wore a necklace from the collection that dates to the eighteenth century. The diamond rivière has been in the family for ten generations. Made for Princess Anne of Orange, a daughter of King George II of Great Britain, the necklace came to Denmark with Queen Lovisa, who had inherited it from her Dutch maternal ancestors.

The diamond earrings also come from the Danish Royal Property Trust. They were displayed alongside Anne of Orange’s diamond necklace in the recent Jubilee jewelry exhibition in Denmark. In this photograph, generously shared by one of our readers, Kristina, they’re the lower of the two pairs shown. The earrings are also believed to have come from the collection of Anne of Orange, and, with the exception of the crown jewel parures, they’re some of the very oldest jewels in the family vaults.

Queen Margrethe is still recovering from her recent fall, so she was not able to be present for the banquet, but her sister, Princess Benedikte, was on hand for the dinner. She wore a light blue evening gown with sparkling diamonds, including the imposing Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Fringe Tiara.