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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Jewels in Motion: The Gloucester Wedding Gifts (1935)

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The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attend a dinner party at the Dorchester Hotel in London, 1950; the Duchess is wearing several jewels received as wedding gifts (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Our celebration of bejeweled royal wedding gifts in GIF form continues today with a look at the display of presents given to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in 1935. Enjoy!

This view of the gifts from the Associated Press shows the size of the cases for jeweled parures
In this clearer general view from British Pathe, we see the Teck turquoises, the pearl and emerald suite, the Buccleuch Pearl Necklace, and the Gloucester Diamond Knot Brooch
This suite of diamond and pearl jewels were given to Alice by King George V and Queen Mary; the set included a necklace, three brooches (one of which had a suspended watch element), two rings, and a pair of earrings
This pearl, emerald, and diamond suite was also a gift from King George V and Queen Mary; it included two necklaces, two bracelets, and an elaborate brooch
Queen Mary also presented Alice with the Teck turquoises, which had been given to Mary by her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Teck; this set included a tiara, a necklace, three brooches, a pair of bracelets, a bangle, a pair of earrings, and a ring
Alice’s father, the 7th Duke of Buccleuch, died of cancer less than a month before the scheduled royal wedding; the wedding went ahead as planned, but it was a much more scaled-back and subdued ceremony. The late Duke’s gift to his daughter, a single-stranded pearl necklace, was displayed with the other presents
Although the wedding was a bit somber, the couple still appeared on the balcony with the royal family. (Alice is wearing a headpiece here, not a tiara.) I love this GIF, partly because Queen Mary’s unusual rhythmic wave makes her look like the royal family’s resident hype man

Jewels in Motion: Queen Elizabeth II’s Wedding Gifts

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Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Next month, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the Duke of Edinburgh will celebrate a remarkable milestone: their 70th wedding anniversary! Today, I’ve got a fun look at the display of their wedding gifts from the autumn of 1947 — in motion!

Jewels displayed here include the Nizam of Hyderabad Tiara, the Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace, the Swiss Federal Watch, and the City of London Fringe Necklace
This display features the Queen Anne and Queen Caroline Pearl Necklaces, the Greville Ruby Necklace, and the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara
This display includes the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, one of Queen Mary’s Indian Bangles, Queen Mary’s Diamond Stomacher, and the Dorset Bow Brooch
A closer look at the City of London Fringe Necklace, which is threaded on silk
Another view of the Greville Ruby Necklace, recently worn by the Duchess of Cambridge
And a close-up view of the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara (without its diamond base)

Jewels in Motion: The Crown of Eric XIV

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The Crown of King Eric XIV of Sweden

The final installment of our month-long look at crown jewels of Europe glittering in motion focuses on a grand Scandinavian crown that is no longer worn: the crown of King Eric XIV of Sweden.

The crown, which was made in 1561 by Cornelius ver Weiden for the coronation of King Eric XIV, is the official crown of the King of Sweden. The elaborate gold crown is a typical example of Renaissance crown jewels of the time.
King Eric XIV was a member of the Vasa dynasty. He was a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots (both of whom he tried to marry). His reign, however, was a short one; he was deposed less than a decade after his accession to the throne. Subsequent Vasa monarchs used his crown, and it’s clearly visible in the coronation portrait of his nephew, King Sigismund.
The Vasa dynasty’s rule in Sweden ended in 1654 with the abdication of Queen Christina, and monarchs from the subsesquent dynasties of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, Hesse, and Holstein-Gottorp chose to be crowned with a different crown that had been made for Christina. Eric XIV’s crown wasn’t used again until 1818, when it was selected for the coronation of the first Bernadotte monarch, King Carl XIV Johan.
But the Bernadottes weren’t satisfied with the state of Eric’s Renaissance crown. They decided to bling it up a bit, removing the original monde and cross and replacing it with the larger, more elaborate one pictured above, which features a blue enameled orb decorated with gold stars and topped with a cross made of ten diamonds. They also affixed eight diamond rosettes to the base of the crown; six of these rosettes are now affixed to the family’s Diamond Six-Button Tiara. (More on that tiara over here!)
In the early twentieth century, these changes were reversed, and the crown was restored to closely resemble is original Renaissance appearance. Today, it resides in the treasury at the Royal Palace in Stockholm along with the rest of Sweden’s royal regalia, which includes numerous other crowns and coronets.
King Oscar II wears King Eric’s crown at the opening of the Riksdag in June 1905 (Wikimedia Commons)

The last Swedish king to wear the crown was Oscar II; he was also the last Swedish king to have a coronation. (The crown was remodeled after his reign, so you can see the diamond rosettes and elaborate monde and cross in the image above.) Since his death in 1907, the crown has been displayed at important events, but it is no longer worn. The royal treasury functions as a public museum, so even though we will likely never see a Swedish monarch wear a crown again, we can still see and enjoy the royal regalia.