This year brought us a newly-minted queen consort with a penchant for historical jewelry—what could be better than that? Number six on our countdown of the best royal jewelry moments of the year goes to Queen Mary of Denmark’s creative use of heirloom jewelry pieces.
Mary’s final gala appearance as Crown Princess of Denmark came on New Year’s Day in 2024, just hours after her mother-in-law announced her impending abdication. Fittingly, Mary chose to wear a suite of jewels associated with Danish crown princesses for the New Year’s Levee at Amalienborg: the tiara, earrings, and brooch from the Danish Ruby Parure.
The ruby brooch and earrings appeared again two weeks later when King Frederik X ascended to the throne. The ruby set was inherited by Frederik from his grandmother, Queen Ingrid, who is certainly a person that the new Queen Mary wishes to emulate in her royal role. Add in the fact that the rubies reflect Denmark’s national colors, and the jewels were a slam-dunk choice for the couple’s first public appearance as King and Queen of Denmark.
Queen Mary continued her appearances in important family heirloom jewels on the day after her husband’s accession. For a reception at the Folketing, Denmark’s parliament, she wore the Connaught Sapphire Brooch. Another legacy from Queen Ingrid, the brooch was given to Mary by Queen Margrethe to celebrate the birth of Crown Prince Christian in 2006.
Mary also chose the Connaught Sapphire Brooch for her arrival in Sweden during the couple’s first state visit abroad. The jewel is a physical link between the Danish and Swedish royal families, as Queen Ingrid of Denmark was born a Princess of Sweden. King Carl XVI Gustaf, Sweden’s monarch, is her nephew.
Many of us expected Mary to wear a new-to-her tiara for her first state banquet abroad as Queen of Denmark, but instead she reached once more for the tiara, earrings, necklace, and brooch from the Danish Ruby Parure. The choice certainly does make sense from a historical perspective, as the jewels were originally made for Désirée Clary, who later became Queen Desideria, the first Bernadotte queen consort of Sweden.
Queen Mary opted for more special royal jewelry pieces for her arrival in Norway for the second Scandinavian state visit of the year. For a welcome ceremony in Oslo, she opted for jewels that reflected the country’s national colors. Her pearl, diamond, sapphire, and ruby earrings were a gift from her mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe. Mary paired the earrings with an antique diamond and spinel brooch that belonged to Queen Lovisa of Denmark, one of the mutual ancestors of the Danish and Norwegian monarchs.
Mary also paid tribute to Queen Lovisa with her choice of tiara for the state banquet that evening. She made her public debut in the Pearl Poiré Tiara, a jewel generally reserved for the use of the Queen of Denmark, at the Royal Palace in Oslo. The tiara was made in Germany and came to Denmark with Queen Lovisa, who inherited it from her Prussian royal grandmother and Dutch royal mother. Lovisa liked to pair them with pieces of pearl jewelry that she received from the Khedive of Egypt and the Tsar of Russia. For the banquet, Mary also wore the Khedive’s earrings and the Tsar’s brooch. Today, the tiara and the set of coordinating pearl and diamond jewels all belonged to the Danish Royal Property Trust.
King Frederik and Queen Mary embarked on a traditional tour aboard the Royal Yacht Dannebrog during the summer, and Mary brought along a special pair of earrings with impressive family history. For a reception in Ærø, she wore the diamond and turquoise earrings that Queen Margrethe gave her in 2022 as a 50th birthday present. The earrings belonged to Margrethe’s grandmother, Princess Margaret of Connaught, but family tradition states that the turquoises set in the earrings were part of the collection of Catherine the Great.
Queen Mary made a second appearance in the Pearl Poiré Tiara in October 2024, when she and King Frederik hosted the President of Iceland for the first incoming state visit of his reign. Delightfully, she paired the tiara with some little-seen diamonds that are also part of the Danish Royal Property Trust. The eighteenth-century diamond rivière necklace and earrings originally belonged to Princess Anne of Orange and came to Denmark with Queen Lovisa.
A few weeks later, Frederik and Mary traveled to Germany for the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Nordic Embassies in Berlin. For a dinner at Bellevue Palace, Mary wore her diamond and pearl wedding earrings, plus additional pieces of diamond and pearl jewelry. The spotlight piece of the ensemble was another rarely-worn Danish royal jewel: a nine-stranded pearl bracelet with a clasp made of a miniature portrait ringed with diamonds. The piece is part of the “portrait jewelry” collection from the Danish Royal Property Trust. The woman depicted in the portrait, per the Danish royal website, is Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway. The Norwegian jewelry historian Trond Noren Isaksen disagrees, stating that the woman in the portrait is actually Josefina’s mother, Princess Augusta, Duchess of Leuchtenberg. Either way, the piece depicts a Danish royal ancestor born in Germany—a fitting jewelry reference for a dinner in Berlin.
You’ll note that Mary pulled off some additional interesting royal jewelry surprises this year that aren’t featured in this article. Stay tuned: there’s more from Queen Mary to come in our countdown!
There’s more sparkle coming in our continuing countdown of the best royal jewelry moments of 2024 later today. Be sure to stop by this afternoon! (And don’t forget: if you’re interested in subscribing to more sparkling history at my Substack newsletter, Hidden Gems, my holiday discount on annual subscriptions runs until the end of December!)
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