What could be better than a long-awaited tiara debut? How about two of them! The fifth spot on my countdown of the best royal jewelry moments of the year goes to royal sisters-in-law in Sweden who sparkled in special heirloom tiaras during the Nobel celebrations.
Princess Madeleine and Princess Sofia, the daughter and daughter-in-law of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, were both present at the Nobel celebrations in Stockholm this December, wearing special jewels from their own collections and the royal vaults. For the Nobel ceremony and banquet, there weren’t any big surprises: Sofia wore her own diamond palmette tiara, while Madeleine paired the Connaught Diamond Tiara with the Bernadotte Emeralds.
But when the royal princesses arrived for the King’s Dinner at the Royal Palace the following evening, royal jewelry lovers gasped at the tiara choices that each of them had made. Princess Madeleine wore a tiara and earrings with centuries of special family history: the Napoleonic Cut-Steel Tiara and the Vasa Earrings.
We’ve seen Madeleine sport the Vasa Earrings before—most notably, on her wedding day in 2013—but this dinner marked her very first public appearance in the gold and steel tiara. The tiara is thought to have been made for Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of Empress Joséphine of France, in the early days of the nineteenth century. It came to Sweden later with Hortense’s niece, Queen Josefina, but it was accidentally stored in an area dedicated to metal objects instead of with the rest of the royal jewelry and forgotten. It was rediscovered in 1976 and restored, and it’s been worn by numerous members of the Bernadotte family in the decades since.
Princess Sofia, who is expecting her fourth child early in 2025, also surprised us all. She has worn sparkling variations on her own bridal tiara for most gala occasions in recent years, so it’s a particular treat to see her dazzling in one of the family’s heirloom tiaras. And the one she chose for the King’s Dinner, the Aquamarine Kokoshnik, is a stunner.
The balanced, beautiful tiara was a wedding gift presented to the King’s grandmother, Princess Margaret of Connaught, in 1905. It was later given to his sister, Princess Margaretha, who has made it available in recent years for the other ladies of the royal family to wear. Sofia wore the tiara with a pair of briolette-cut gemstone drop earrings from her personal collection. The pendant stones are reportedly blue topazes.
We’re getting to the really good stuff in our countdown of the best royal jewelry moments of the year! The fourth spot in our countdown will be revealed tomorrow morning…
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