magpie of the month

Queen Mathilde’s Diamond Fringe Necklace

01.11.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Grand-Ducal Court of Luxembourg via Getty Images

Our Magpie of the Month, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, has numerous diamond necklaces at her disposal for gala events. Today, we’re talking about one of my favorites from that collection: her modern diamond fringe necklace.

Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images

The necklace’s setting gives it an unusually jagged, almost unfinished look. More severe, pointed diamonds alternate with fringes composed of multiple smooth, rounded stones, and the tips of each fringe extend irregularly beyond the main line of the necklace, giving the piece a double-fringed effect.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Mathilde has paired the necklace in the past with her diamond laurel wreath tiara. Above, for the pre-wedding gala in Luxembourg in October 2012, she wears the tiara and the necklace with earrings featuring a diamond bow stud and a pearl drop.

Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images

She has also let the necklace shine at black-tie, non-tiara events, like the pre-wedding dinner held in the United Kingdom in April 2011.

Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images

On that occasion, she paired the necklace with diamond and pearl earrings. These are similar to another pair of diamond earrings she’s worn for more recent occasions, including King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden’s 70th birthday celebrations. (Note: Mathilde also seems to have worn Queen Fabiola’s Fringe Brooch in her hair on this occasion — see the fringes hanging down?)

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

The diamond fringe necklace is a royal staple, and this one marries traditional and modern design to produce an updated twist on a classic style.

Queen Mathilde’s Diamond Fringe Earrings

01.03.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/AFP/Getty Images

In 2018, we’re reviving a popular past feature on the blog: the Magpie of the Month, where we explore the jewelry box of one royal lady each week for an entire month! This January, our Magpie is Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, and we’re starting with something very sparkly: one of her beautiful pairs of diamond fringe earrings.

Michel Porro/Getty Images

These diamond earrings, which feature a five-stranded fringed tassel dangling from a nautilus-style stud, have been staples in Mathilde’s jewelry wardrobe for around five years. The sparkle of the pair makes them a perfect choice for gala functions. Above, she wears them in April 2013 at the pre-inauguration dinner in the Netherlands, pairing them with her laurel wreath tiara and the diamond fringe brooch that belonged to Queen Fabiola.

Touissant Kluiters-Pool/Getty Images

Although the earrings pair nicely with tiaras and other gala jewels, Mathilde also sometimes wears them for important daytime events. Here, they pulled double duty during the Dutch inauguration, making a second appearance at the inauguration itself.

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Since then, the earrings have remained a versatile part of Mathilde’s jewelry box. Above, she wears them for the family’s annual Christmas concert at the Royal Palace in 2014…

BENOIT DOPPAGNE/AFP/Getty Images

…and at a state banquet for the President and First Lady of China at Laeken in March of the same year. On this occasion, she also wore the bandeau base of the Nine Provinces Tiara, a sparkler only worn by Belgian queens.

KRISTOF VAN ACCOM/AFP/Getty Images

In 2016, she wore them for the annual concert held as part of the country’s National Day festivities in July.

NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/AFP/Getty Images

And last year, she wore them to attend the Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition with her eldest child, Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant.

Nigel Waldron/Getty Images

But Mathilde’s jewelry collection just keeps growing, and this pair isn’t the only pair of diamond fringe earrings in her jewelry box. At the Norwegian birthday celebrations in May, she wore a different pair of diamond fringe earrings. You’ll note that the stud of this pair of earrings includes ribbon-like designs, and the three fringes appear to be longer and feature different cuts of diamonds.

The Cartier Halo Tiara

01.04.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Duchess of Cambridge wears the Cartier Halo Tiara on her wedding day (Fiona Hanson – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

For the new year, we’re resurrecting one of our most popular early features: the Magpie of the Month! This January, we’ll be featuring pieces worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, whose jewelry box has been growing by leaps and bounds since this blog began a few years ago. First up on the list: her bridal diadem, the famous Cartier Halo Tiara.

The Cartier Halo Tiara is displayed at Buckingham Palace (Lewis Whyld/WPA Pool/ Getty Images)

The tiara is a relatively small, minor one, but it has always been in the main line of the British royal family. Made by Cartier in 1936, it was an anniversary gift from King George VI (then still Duke of York) to his wife, Elizabeth (who we all know better as the Queen Mum). She was photographed in the piece, which features large scroll elements arranged across a geometric band of diamonds (hence the fact that it is sometimes called the “Scroll Tiara”), but it never became one of her most frequently worn tiaras.

Princess Margaret wears the Cartier Halo Tiara to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden on the eve of the coronation; beside her, the Queen Mother wears the Oriental Circlet with the Crown Rubies (British Pathe screencap)

In 1944, Queen Elizabeth gave the tiara to her daughter, the current Queen, as an eighteenth birthday gift. However, Elizabeth II never wore the tiara in public. Instead, she loaned the piece frequently to her younger sister, Princess Margaret, who wore it at the 1953 coronation.

Princess Anne wears the Cartier Halo Tiara in New Zealand in 1970 (William Lovelace/Daily Express/Getty Images)

The tiara really is the perfect size for a younger princess, and Margaret wore it often in the years before she married Antony Armstrong-Jones (when she graduated to something a touch bigger — the mighty Poltimore), as well as afterward. The next borrower of the tiara was the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, who also wore the tiara frequently before her marriage. But then the tiara went into the vault, unseen for years until Kate Middleton arrived at Westminster Abbey for her royal wedding in 2011.

The Duchess of Cambridge wears the Cartier Halo Tiara on her wedding day (BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

Her choice of a bridal tiara is only one of the signals Kate has given in recent years that she wants her royal role to be patterned after that of the late Queen Mother. Kate also used another of her wedding jewels — her diamond earrings — to join together motifs from her birth and marital families. The main shape of the earrings mimics the scroll motif of the tiara, but the earrings also feature a diamond acorn, which comes from her father’s new coat of arms. We don’t know whether Kate has been loaned the tiara on a long-term basis, but the coordinating earrings made it seem highly likely that we will see her in it again someday.

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