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Royal Jewel Rewind: Nobel Prize Ceremony (2011)

12.07.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The 2011 Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

On Saturday, the glitz and glam of the annual Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet will arrive in Stockholm. To help get us in the mood for more Swedish tiaras, here’s a flashback to the jewels we saw at the Nobels five years ago.

Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Queen Silvia wore one of her usual Nobel tiaras: Queen Sofia’s Tiara (aka the Nine Prong Tiara). This angle shows the unusual setting of the central diamond. We also get a good look here at the Karl Johan Diamond Earrings.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

With La Pronger, Silvia also wore a diamond riviere with a pear-shaped diamond pendant. She secured her Seraphim sash with Queen Victoria’s diamond lozenge brooch.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Here’s a look at her apricot and gold brocade gown, which has a very queenly train.

Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Crown Princess Victoria was expecting Princess Estelle on this Nobel night, but she still piled on the diamonds. She’s wearing the Six-Button Tiara in all its glory. As her dress was spangled with royal blue sequins, she also wore pieces from the Leuchtenberg sapphire parure; we get a good look at the earrings here. You can also see that she has jeweled hairpins in her updo.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Here you can see that she fastened her Seraphim sash with one of the magnificent Leuchtenberg sapphire brooches.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

And here’s a look at her gown. You’d think head-to-toe sequins could be a bit much, but I absolutely love this dress.

Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Princess Madeleine didn’t attend the Nobels in 2011, but the king’s sister, Princess Christina, did. This was one of the last public outings for her small diamond and pearl tiara, which was stolen the following year. She also wore gray pearl earrings, a small diamond and pearl cluster brooch, and a lovely multi-colored pearl necklace. I’m very intrigued by the cocktail ring on her right hand!

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

We did get one extra, surprise guest at the 2011 Nobels: Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg. She wore pieces from the family’s collection of diamond and emerald jewels, including the Chaumet Emerald Tiara and the diamond and emerald choker. Her earrings are also set with diamonds and emeralds.

Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Maria Teresa didn’t sit on the stage at the ceremony, so this is the best view we have of her dress, which I think has a gorgeous neckline.

What jewels do you hope to see at this Saturday’s Nobel ceremony? Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, Princess Madeleine, and Princess Sofia will be in attendance.

The Lannoy Tiara

11.12.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg wears the Lannoy Tiara on her wedding day
[Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

Some royal wedding tiaras are grand; some are a bit more subdued. Today’s tiara, the Lannoy Tiara, falls into the latter category. One of the world’s newest royals wore this petite diamond tiara at her 2012 wedding. Countess Stéphanie of Lannoy chose to wear her family’s tiara on the day she married Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg, rather than one of the showstopping diamond tiaras from her new royal family’s extensive collection.

The Lannoy Tiara
[Photo: Grand-Ducal Court of Luxembourg via Getty Images]

The Lannoy tiara may be smaller than some, but it is absolutely jam-packed with diamonds — almost 300 of them! — including the large pear-shaped diamond that sits atop the sparkler. The piece features delicate floral designs supporting that large, eye-catching diamond. The tiara is constructed using a millegrain technique.

The Lannoy Tiara
[Photo: Grand-Ducal Court of Luxembourg via Getty Images]

The tiara was made in 1878 by Altenloh, a Belgian jewelry firm that also supplied pieces to other Belgian royals and aristocrats. The small sparkler was also worn by Stéphanie’s sisters and sisters-in-law at their weddings, so by choosing the tiara, she was continuing the Lannoy family tradition.

The Lannoy Tiara flips backward on Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg’s wedding day
[Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

The size and design of the tiara apparently makes it difficult to properly anchor, however. On Stéphanie’s wedding day, the tiara flipped backward, as it was only fastened to her hairdo at either end. Because the piece lacks the velvet-lined base that many royal tiaras have, there appears to be no reliable way to adequately secure the center of the piece to the wearer’s hair.

A view of the back of the Lannoy Tiara, worn by Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg on her wedding day
[Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

Beyond tradition, the wearing of her family’s tiara was yet another way for Stéphanie to remember her mother, who died shortly before the wedding. And now that she’s the wife of the heir, she’ll have plenty of time to pilfer through her new family’s tiara stash. Indeed, she’s worn several of the family’s sparklers since her wedding day, plus a new diamond tiara of her own.

Note: This is an updated version of an earlier post, with new text/images.

The Luxembourg Citrine and Pearl Bandeau

11.05.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Luxembourg Citrine and Pearl Bandeau (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

One of the more unusual tiaras in the Luxembourg vaults is today’s piece: a bandeau tiara of pearls and stones that are either citrines or yellow topazes. (We’ll go with citrine here, mainly because more people seem to identify the gems as such. They really could be either one!)

The tiara shares a great deal in common with the family’s amethyst bandeau. Like that tiara, this one is also a part of a demi-parure, with coordinating earrings and a necklace. I think it’s highly possible that these two sets were made at the same time, during years when Grand Duke Jean and Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte were the reigning couple in the country. She wore the tiara for a state visit to Italy in the early 1980s; she also wore the tiara at an event in Denmark near the end of her life.

The current grand duchess, Maria Teresa, chose this tiara for one of her first formal portraits after becoming the hereditary grand duchess. Apart from an outing in the 1990s, when Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein wore the tiara during a Luxembourg/Belgium state visit, the piece was not seen again until more recently. Princess Alexandra wore the tiara during the 2011 National Day gala, and her mother appeared in the set once again on a 2012 state visit to Germany.

Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

And continuing her tour through the tiara holdings of the grand duchy, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie has also donned this sparkler. She appeared in the tiara at the wedding of Princess Madeleine of Sweden, which took place in the summer of 2013. Cleverly, on that occasion, the yellow stones in the tiara and her blue order sash combined to form the colors of the Swedish flag — which, accidental or not, was pretty nifty!