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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

The Daily Diadem: Queen Emma’s Diamond Tiara and Princess Mabel’s Wedding Tiara

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Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands wears Queen Emma’s Diamond Tiara and Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau wears her diamond wedding tiara at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, June 2010; learn more about Laurentien’s tiara over here and Mabel’s tiara over here!
(And psst — there’s a third tiara surprise hidden in the background! That’s Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg wearing her mother’s Floral Birthday Tiara!)

This Week in Royal Jewels: March 23-30

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March 23-30, 2018
Jewels from Monaco, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom dominated the royal scene this week. Don’t forget to vote for your favorites in the poll below!
STEVE PARSONS/AFP/Getty Images
10. On Thursday, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom decided to go sans brooch for the annual Royal Maundy Service, held this year at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. (See Royal Maundy Brooches from years past over here!)

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
9. Alexandra of Hanover, younger daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco, wore a pair of fun canine-themed earrings and a silver necklace for this year’s Rose Ball. (More over here!)
PATRICK VAN KATWIJK/AFP/Getty Images
8. For Monday’s meeting with Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands wore her bracelet set with cabochon gemstones and a very interesting neck ornament.
PATRICK VAN KATWIJK/AFP/Getty Images
7. Queen Maxima chose hoop earrings for an Orange Fund meeting in Doorn on Friday.
VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images
6. Charlotte Casiraghi, elder daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco, upped the jewelry drama with a single earring with a pair of pearl drops at the annual Rose Ball. (More over here!)
STEVE PARSONS/AFP/Getty Images
5. Queen Elizabeth II wore the Jewellers and Silversmiths Brooch, a gold, ruby, and diamond brooch that she received as a wedding present in 1947, for a meeting with President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
ROBIN UTRECHT/AFP/Getty Images
4. On Thursday, Queen Maxima wore her Harmony earrings, a collaboration between Diane von Furstenberg and H. Stern, as she celebrated the tenth anniversary of the It Begins with Language Foundation. (More on the earrings over here!)
Andrew Matthews – WPA Pool /Getty Images
3. The glittering Palm Leaf Brooch was Queen Elizabeth II’s choice for the decommissioning ceremony for HMS Ocean in Plymouth on Tuesday.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
2. Princess Caroline of Monaco wore sparkling jewels, including several pearl drop pieces and a theatrical necklace, for this weekend’s Rose Ball. (More over here!)
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
1. My top vote of the week goes to Beatrice Borromeo Casiraghi, who absolutely glittered at the Rose Ball in statement earrings, a diamond riviere, and a major diamond bracelet. (More over here!)

The Antique Pearl Tiara

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Michel Porro/Getty Images

The glamorous Queen Maxima of the Netherlands has sported an array of tiaras from the Dutch royal family’s vast jewel collection, but back in 2001, she selected her very first tiara from the family’s stash: the base of the Antique Pearl Tiara.

Anna Pavlovna wears her pearl tiara in an 1849 portrait (Grand Ladies Site)

The tiara, which is owned by the Dutch royal family, is sometimes called the Pavlovnik pearl tiara — that’s because Anna Pavlovna, the queen consort of Willem II of the Netherlands, once had a tiara quite a lot like it. Exactly what happened to that older tiara is unclear. (Anna Pavlovna’s pearl tiara is the one worn in the portrait above.)

LISE ASERUD/AFP/Getty Images

The current Antique Pearl Tiara, which was made in 1900, was designed to mimic the shape of the original Pavlovnik tiara. The large, pear-shaped pearls that sit upright in the tiara are even older than the piece itself. They belonged to Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, a seventeenth-century Dutch princess who shares her name with Maxima’s eldest daughter, Catharina-Amalia, the current Princess of Orange.

Princess Irene wears the tiara in 2013 (ROBIN UTRECHT/AFP/Getty Images)

Queen Wilhelmina was the first wearer of this pearl tiara, and it has been worn by all Dutch queens since then. Queen Juliana inherited the piece from her mother in 1962. She placed the tiara in the family’s jewel foundation, ensuring that all future queens of the Netherlands will also be able to wear it. Since then, Princess Beatrix and two of her sisters, Princess Margriet and Princess Irene, have also donned the tiara.

Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

Although the tiara is almost always worn with Amalia’s pearls, Queen Maxima first wore the tiara without them. Her very first tiara outing happened before she was even a princess: she wore the pearl tiara (sans pearls) to the wedding of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway in 2001. She also wore the base of the tiara solo during a 2003 visit from the Italian president. The base of the tiara has also been worn without its pearls by Princess Viktoria, the wife of the king’s cousin, Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Parma.

Today, Maxima wears the complete piece; notably, she chose it for the striking portrait released to mark her fortieth birthday in 2011, and she’s continued to wear it since becoming the nation’s queen consort in 2013.

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