We’ve made it to the top three in our countdown of the best royal jewelry moments of 2024. The third spot goes to Queen Mary of Denmark’s fascinating forays into the Danish crown jewel collection—including the creation of a new tiara!
Shortly after her husband’s accession in January, Queen Mary of Denmark began appearing in fabulous heirloom jewels from the family’s personal collections and the Danish Royal Property Trust. In April, she made her first public appearance in pieces from the nation’s crown jewel collection, wearing the tiara and jewels of the Danish Emerald Parure for an official portrait.
The set, which features floral and ribbon designs, was made for Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark in 1840 by the German goldsmith Carl Martin Weisshaupt. Some of the emeralds incorporated into the parure are a century older than the set itself. They belonged to Queen Sophie Magdalene of Denmark. Her husband, King Christian VI, gave the gems to her in 1723 to celebrate the birth of their son and heir, the future King Frederik V of Denmark.
Along with the tiara, the set also includes a necklace, earrings, and a large corsage ornament. The Danish crown jewels belong to the state and are used exclusively by the Queen, but they don’t travel outside of Denmark. When they’re not being used, the jewels are on display to the public at Rosenborg Slot.
For her first official gala portrait as Queen of Denmark, Mary opted to wear the tiara, earrings, and necklace from the emerald set, sparkling in gemstones that have a 300-year history with the Danish royal family.
There were two more interesting crown jewelry moments from Mary in 2024 as well. In November, she wore a fascinating brooch for the unveiling of a statue of Countess Danner, the morganatic wife of King Frederik VII of Denmark.
The brooch is part of a larger suite of citrine, pearl, diamond, amethyst, and gold jewels, made in 1860 for Countess Danner. The suite was commissioned from Danish court jeweler Julius Diderichsen and presented to the Countess as a gift from the King. It is currently on display with the crown jewels at Rosenborg Slot, but it’s not technically part of the crown jewel collection. The suite is owned by the New Carlsberg Foundation, who have placed it on a permanent loan to Denmark’s Royal Collection.
When Mary wore the brooch from Countess Danner’s citrine set for the statue unveiling, she became the first royal person to wear any of the jewels since Louise herself wore them in the nineteenth century. Times certainly have changed—like the Countess, Mary was a commoner before her marriage to a Danish king, but evolving attitudes now mean that her birth status doesn’t prevent her from holding the title of Queen.
In December, Mary showed just how much innovative promise she has in her role with Denmark’s historic jewelry collections. The Danish Royal Collection revealed that Mary, in cooperation with the collection’s jewelry experts, had commissioned the creation of a new tiara setting for one of the Danish crown jewel parures.
The suite in question is the rose-cut diamond parure, which was also made in 1840 by Carl Martin Weisshaupt for Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark. The diamonds used in the construction of the set, which includes an elaborate diamond tassel and a long diamond girdle ornament, is set with stones that belonged to an eighteenth-century Danish princess, Charlotte Amalie of Denmark.
The diamond chain, formerly worn as a belt by a royal lady wearing a corset, is no longer particularly usable in its 1840 setting. So Mary, working with the jewelers and historians of the Royal Collection, has had a new setting made for the largest diamonds in the chain, allowing them to be worn on a tiara frame.
Here’s a view of the new tiara setting, which I’m calling the Danish Rose Diamond Bandeau. The bandeau-style tiara is reminiscent of another historical diamond conversion: the Dutch Diamond Bandeau worn by the royal ladies in the Netherlands.
Queen Mary wore the diamond bandeau for the first time with gala attire at a state banquet in honor of the visiting President of Egypt in December. It promises to be just the first of many jewelry innovations to come. When they revealed the existence of the new tiara, the royal court wrote, “With the creation of the new frame, The Queen and the Royal Collection are resuming the old tradition of adapting the crown jewels to the demands and needs of the times. This in many ways marks a new path for the Danish crown jewels, uniting the different traditions that have surrounded these four iconic jewelry sets–a path between revitalization and continuity.” I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
Tomorrow we’re revealing my top two royal jewelry moments of the year! Stay tuned for some sparkling New Year’s Eve countdown reveals…!
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