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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Jewels on Film: De Kongelige Juveler

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The Braganza Tiara, as shown in De Kongelige Juveler (Image: Screencap)
One of the best documentaries ever made about royal jewelry, De Kongelige Juveler, has popped up again on YouTube. If you’ve not seen this excellent film about the jewels of various royal families, don’t hesitate to see it now — these things are often pulled quickly. The film was made in Denmark, so the narration is in Danish, but the interviews are almost all in English, and the images of the jewels are stunning. Enjoy!


Episode One
Episode Two

Another VICTORIA Tiara Teaser

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Thanks to the image above (which was tweeted by Dan McCulloch, producer of the upcoming ITV/PBS series Victoria), we’ve got yet another glimpse of a tiara used in the production.

Looks like this time we’ve got a version of the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, albeit sort of cut in half. I know I don’t need to tell dedicated readers why this made me smile a little, but quickly: Queen Victoria never owned this tiara. It was made as a wedding present for Queen Mary in 1893, and only two royal women — Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth II — have ever worn it in public.

Queen Elizabeth II wears the real Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara (Photo: Michael Ukas – Pool /Getty Images)

The GGBI is a gorgeous tiara, and I get why they’d want to use it for aesthetic reasons, but it makes me a little nervous that we won’t see any period-appropriate jewels in this production at all…

Jewels on Film: Nepalese State Visit (1960)

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King Mahendra of Nepal visits London in 1960 (Screencap source)
Today’s clip, a bit of newsreel footage from the 1960 state visit from Nepal to the United Kingdom, is full of glitter from an evening at the opera house in Covent Garden.


Numerous members of the British royal family are pictured here, many of them wearing very familiar pieces of jewelry. (How many can you identify?) The Nepalese royal family is also decked out in diamonds. King Mahendra and his wife, Queen Ratna (whose name literally means “jewel”), reigned in Nepal until his death in 1972. Queen Ratna is still alive today — she survived the horrific massacre of the royal family in 2001, and although Nepal’s monarchy was later abolished, she still lives on the grounds of the royal palace.