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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: May 2-8

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May 2-8, 2014
It’s Friday yet again, magpies — time for another round of the week’s best bejeweled news!

10. A new portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by photographer David Bailey was released on Thursday. The photo, which was taken as a part of the GREAT Britain campaign, features the Queen wearing the George VI sapphires, a nineteenth-century suite of diamond and sapphire jewelry given to her as a wedding present by her father.

9. Queen Sofia of Spain was on hand for the presentation of her nation’s paralympic sailing team on Thursday in Valencia, and her sailboat brooches were quite appropriate for the occasion.

8. At a concert in Amsterdam on Thursday, Queen Maxima surprised royal watchers by recycling a dress first worn decades earlier by her mother-in-law. She accessorized the already-bejeweled dress with bracelets and a pair of dangling earrings.

7. We all know that connections to royal wearers significantly increase the values of pieces of jewelry, but even so, this is kind of staggering: apparently the sapphire and diamond engagement ring worn by both Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Cambridge is now worth an estimated £300,000 — approximately ten times its original price.

6. To celebrate Princess Benedikte’s seventieth birthday, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark bestowed the Order of the Dannebrog on her sister. The order honors those who have made major contributions to the nation, and as Benedikte continues to carry out engagements (and even serve as regent) in Denmark, I’d say she certainly meets the qualifications. The order has eight grand commanders: Queen Margrethe, Prince Henrik, Crown Prince Frederik, Prince Joachim, (the former) King Constantine II of Greece, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Harald V of Norway, and now Princess Benedikte.

5. Although she normally prefers very low-key jewelry, the Princess of Asturias added an unexpected ornament to her hair for an audience at Zarzuela Palace on Thursday: a thin gilded headband.

4. The Countess of Wessex found a cuddly friend on a visit to Newbury this week. If you peek past Rosie the guinea pig, you’ll catch a glimpse of her Heavenly Necklaces snowflake pendant.

3. Queen Elizabeth II debuted an apparently new brooch this week in Essex. The piece appears to feature daffodils, which may suggest a connection to Wales; indeed, the only time it’s been spotted before was in a portrait of the Queen commissioned by the Welsh Rugby Union to mark the 60th anniversary of her coronation.

2. On Tuesday, Queen Maxima wore a questionable hat a beautiful pair of pearl pendant earrings during a regional tour of The Achterhoek.

1. Leave it to the Luxembourgish royals to give us our tiara of the week! Grand Duchess Maria Teresa brought out the family’s aquamarine set during a state visit to Poland.

The Top Ten: Maddest Tiaras

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Time for another new feature category here at The Court Jeweller: The Top Ten, in which we count down the best (and worst) of royal jewelry. Today, we’re celebrating my recent relaunch of classic posts from the Mad Hattery! blog with a rundown of my votes for the top ten Maddest Tiaras in modern royal collections. Have a glance at my picks, and then weigh in with your top ten list in the comments below!

10. Princess Madeleine’s Aquamarine Bandeau: The hunt for the maddest tiaras makes its first stop in the Bernadotte family vaults in Sweden, where this simple yet strange bandeau resides. It’s the tiara given to Princess Madeleine for her eighteenth birthday; for many years, it was one of the only tiaras she wore. The piece is actually an heirloom, but that hasn’t stopped many royal watchers from affectionately (or not?) dubbing this one “the Cyclops.”

9. Queen Fabiola’s Spanish Wedding Gift Tiara: Here’s a case where a transformable tiara can go from lovely to completely mad with a few flicks of the jeweler’s tiny screwdriver. The tiara given by General Franco to Queen Fabiola of Belgium as a wedding gift is perfectly lovely when it’s arranged as a floral wreath tiara. But when its floral elements are propped up atop a coronet, it goes from elegant quite quickly to something … else. Let’s put it this way — would anyone have been surprised if this coronet had shown up during one of Lord Snowdon’s over-the-top ’60s royal spectaculars? Nope, me neither.

8. The Aquamarine Pineflower Tiara: It’s a bit hard to see in the photo above, but Princess Anne is wearing the absolute maddest of her own tiaras at the recent Irish state banquet. This Cartier-made tiara, which includes pinecone elements mixed with large rectangular aquamarines, was once owned by the Queen Mum. Not surprisingly, it’s not been high on the “most-worn tiaras” list for either the QM or her granddaughter.

7. The Norwegian Emerald Parure Tiara: This mad tiara just goes to show that royal provenance can’t totally overcome wackiness. This emerald tiara was once owned by the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, daughter-in-law to Empress Josephine of France. It’s been worn by lots of Scandinavian royals, including the current Queen of Norway, but that still doesn’t trump the fact that the geometric stones in this one look a bit more Willy Wonka than white-tie.

6. The Burmese Ruby Tiara: A relic of the design vacuum that was the 1970s, the Tudor roses in this modern tiara unfortunately read “big red blob” far too often for this one to be anything but a mad diamond and ruby experiment gone wrong.

5. The Swedish Four-Button Tiara: Beep, beep, everybody — it’s the Jeep! I don’t care if the lights are actually antique diamond buttons (and, okay, they are), this one’s just loony.

4. Queen Sonja’s Modern Gold Tiara: It’s just never good when a queen consort’s tiara would look right at home on the set of a 20th century sci-fi flick.

3. The Chaumet Emerald Tiara: The grand ducal family of Luxembourg has some stunning pieces of jewelry tucked away in their palace vaults … and then they also have this tiara, suitable for Wonder Woman’s fanciest gala appearances.

2. Princess Astrid’s Aigrette: According to Astrid herself, she’s pretty sure she can pick up radio signals from across Europe with this puppy, and based on the appearance of these diamond antenna, I believe her.

1. Queen Margrethe’s Golden Poppies: Not so much a tiara, really, as an experience — and by “experience,” I mean a giant creepy gold headdress made of flowers and bugs. It’s another relic of the 1970s, when tiara makers appear to have been as much under the influence of various things as the rest of the population was. Above, at one of the poppies’ more recent public outings (a decade ago (!), at Frederik and Mary’s engagement dinner), Margrethe only wore a couple of the flowers strewn in her hair. But the full madness isn’t apparent until you see the whole thing. I don’t know, though — it’s Daisy the Great Dane, after all. If she’s not going to wear a truly mad tiara, who will?

So, readers, it’s your turn now to offer up your roster of the ten maddest royal tiaras out there. And when you’re done, don’t forget to drop by The Royal Roundup for some classic mad royal hattery!

On the Block: Royal Jewels at Sotheby’s

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Next month, a collection of jewelry will be going up for sale at Sotheby’s in Geneva that includes a number of items owned by royals. Here’s a rundown of some of the lots that may be of interest to all of you — including a couple of mysterious items with anonymous royal connections.
  • The Rosenborg Kokoshnik Tiara (Lot 450). After failing to sell at auction at Bukowski’s, the garnet, diamond, and pearl kokoshnik tiara that belongs to a junior noble branch of the Danish royal family is up for sale once more. The price of the tiara, which was made in the 1930s by Dragsted, has been significantly reduced from its last offering. The most recent wearer of the tiara was Countess Ruth of Rosenborg, who died in 2010. The family is descended from Prince Axel of Denmark (a grandson of King Christian IX) and Princess Margaretha of Sweden (the sister of Crown Princess Martha of Norway and Queen Astrid of Belgium).
  • The Pearls of the House of Orange (Lot 384). This necklace, made of pearls with a sapphire and diamond clasp, is being sold by Prince Eduard of Anhalt. The pearls belong to descendants of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange and his wife, Princess Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. The clasp of the necklace was reportedly added during the Napoleonic era.
  • The Staatholder Pearl (Lot 385). Also from the Anhalt collection, the natural pearl pendant on this necklace is another legacy from the House of Orange. It was worn by Henriette Catherine of Nassau at her wedding to Prince John George II of Anhalt-Dessau in 1659, and has been worn by family brides up to the 1960s. (Additionally, the Anhalts are also offering a diamond and Ceylon sapphire ring, dated to the 19th century, in the sale.)
  • The Dowager German Empress’s Pendant (Lot 382). This pearl and diamond pendant, which dates to the late 19th century, was part of the jewelry collection of Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, the second wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
Along with these pieces, all of which advertise their royal provenance as a part of the auction notes, the sale also contains these pieces, being auctioned anonymously by royals:
  • A Diamond and Pearl Floral Brooch (Lot 326). Offered by “a member of a royal family.” The late 19th century brooch is described as “a floral spray brooch accented with natural pearls and pear-, cushion-shaped, circular-, single-cut and rose diamonds.”
  • A Synthetic Sapphire and Diamond Demi-Parure (Lot 325). Also offered by “a member of a royal family.” (Possibly the same royal, given the consecutive lot numbers?) The demi-parure consists of two pieces, a necklace and a bracelet, “composed of alternating pinched collet-set circular-cut synthetic sapphires and diamonds.” Additionally, the necklace has five detachable pendant drops.
  • A Yellow Diamond Demi-Parure (Lot 488). Part of “a royal private collection.” Made by Harry Winston, this demi-parure consists of four pieces: a necklace, earrings, a bracelet, and a ring. (Which, if you ask me, makes it a complete parure, but I’m not in charge of the lot notes at Sotheby’s.) Most of the diamonds are described as having a “yellow tint,” but the ring is set with a 16-carat fancy yellow pear-shaped diamond.
  • An Emerald and Diamond Parure (Lot 489). Also part of “a royal private collection” (surely the same one as the previous lot). The set includes a necklace, a ring, and earrings. The emerald set in the diamond necklace is a 53-carat Colombian emerald; the emeralds set in the ring and earrings are heart-shaped.
So, if you had a spare bundle of cash laying about, which one of these lots would you bid on? Are you surprised that some of these pieces are being auctioned? And — most importantly — which royals do you think are selling their bling anonymously???