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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Royal Jewel Rewind: The Belgian Royal Wedding (1999)

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Fifteen years ago today, Belgium hosted its biggest royal wedding of the generation. Prince Philippe, heir to the throne, married speech therapist Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz on December 4 in Brussels. Today, they have four children, and they’re King and Queen of the Belgians. Let’s have a look back at the jewelry worn on their wedding day, shall we?

Mathilde borrowed her wedding tiara from her new mother-in-law, Queen Paola. It’s a diamond bandeau that once belonged to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium; Paola owns the piece personally. With her Edouard Vermeulen gown, Mathilde also wore a pair of diamond and pearl earrings. She regularly wears the earrings at major royal events. (At this summer’s Belgian royal wedding, the bandeau tiara was worn by the bride, and Mathilde wore her wedding earrings.)

The mother of the groom, Queen Paola, wore pearl earrings and a diamond and pearl choker, plus a gorgeous floral brooch. King Albert II, who is having a really great time in the back, is wearing Belgium’s highest order of chivalry, the Order of Leopold. You’ll see the distinctive purple sash on lots of the men in the wedding photos.

Pearls were also the jewel of choice for the groom’s aunt, Queen Fabiola, although they’re a bit obscured by her jacket and fur. The hat is enormously glorious, perfect for Fabiola, whose hair has always been a little larger than life.

Princess Astrid, the groom’s sister, kept her jewelry fairly minimalist — it was 1999, after all — but I think I spy a brooch securing her fur wrap. Here’s a better view of her earrings.

Here are a few more ladies from the extended Belgian royal family — that’s King Albert’s sister-in-law, Princess Lea, on the left, and his younger sister, Princess Esmerelda, wearing the fur hat. Esmerelda isReally digging Esmerelda’s gold necklace.

King Albert II and the late Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg were also siblings, so of course, the family jetted over from the grand duchy for the day. Josephine-Charlotte wore pearls, including the double-drop brooch that’s one of my favorite pieces from the Luxembourg jewel collection.

Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, then the Hereditary Grand Duchess, went with large gold earrings and a major fur stole.

Because King Albert’s mother, Queen Astrid, was born a Swedish princess, the Belgians also have major family ties to the Scandinavian royals. Queen Silvia of Sweden wore pearls…

… and so did Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, although she also added a pair of interesting earrings and a molting bird.

You can sneak a peek of Queen Sofia of Spain here between Albert and Paola; she clearly also got the pearls-and-feathers memo.

Constantine and Anne-Marie of Greece also attended; Anne-Marie added a pearl bracelet to her outfit.

Kardam and Miriam of Bulgaria were there, too. It’s tough to tell, but it looks like Miriam’s wearing delicate gold jewels.

Princess Martha-Louise of Norway is an especially close cousin; her namesake grandmother and the groom’s grandmother were sisters. She’s on the ’90s minimalism train with her jewels, too.

The couple had a huge bridal party, wearing LOTS of red velvet.

Royals and family (and some of both)…

And the traditional giant royal wedding guest photo!

Royal Citrines and Topazes

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Where I live in the United States, November is the season of changing leaves and harvested crops, of vivid scarlets and oranges and yellows. It only seems fitting that this month’s birthstone is a gorgeous, vibrant orange color. Whether in the form of citrines or of orange topazes, the gems are unusual and fun. Here’s a look at some of the citrines and orange topazes in royal collections today.

Queen Máxima’s Citrines

From the early years of her royal marriage, Máxima of the Netherlands has been adding pieces of citrine and diamond jewelry to her collection. It was a particularly appropriate gemstone for the wife of the Prince of Orange and a new member of the House of Orange-Nassau. The engagement ring given by Willem-Alexander to Máxima featured a citrine surrounded by diamonds. In the ensuing years, she has also worn other diamond and citrine jewels, including drop earrings (seen above), bracelets, and an absolutely enormous brooch. (More on the citrines, including pieces worn by other Dutch royal ladies, is available at John’s website.)

Queen Sonja’s Modern Gold Parure with Topazes

Queen Sonja of Norway’s jewelry box contains a particularly interesting modern gold parure that can be worn with interchangeable jewels in a number of ways. One of these settings features dark orange topazes set in the tiara and necklace; there are also coordinating orange topaz and gold earrings, as well as a secondary set of gold and topaz jewels, a necklace and earrings, that can be worn with the tiara. This parure isn’t to everyone’s taste, but its versatility is without question. (Read my earlier post on the entire parure here!)

The Duchess of Cambridge’s Citrine Earrings

Many of the pieces in the Duchess of Cambridge’s collection feature semi-precious stones, including a pair of earrings set with citrines. Made by one of her favorite jewelry designers, Kiki McDonough, the earrings feature pear-shaped citrine drops suspended from small yellow gold hoops. Kate wears these quite frequently.

Luxembourg’s Citrine/Topaz and Pearl Parure

It’s not entirely clear whether the yellow stones in this parure are citrines or topazes, but either way, it’s a striking set. The members of the grand ducal family of Luxembourg have been wearing this set for several decades, from Grand Duchess Maria Teresa’s early portrait in the parure to Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie’s appearance in the jewels at the most recent royal wedding in Sweden. Unusually, the set pairs the yellow stones with pearls rather than diamonds. (Here’s more on the parure from Luxarazzi.)

Which royals would you like to see add jewels featuring citrines or orange/yellow topazes to their collections?

Tiara Timeline: The Norwegian Emerald Parure Tiara

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Time for another installment of our surveys of tiara history! Enjoy!

Tiara Timeline: The Norwegian Emerald Parure Tiara

1810-1820: The creation date of the tiara and the other pieces of the coordinating parure has never been firmly established. It bears significant stylistic similarities to two diamond and emerald tiaras created in France at the beginning of the nineteenth century: the emerald and diamond tiara made in 1810 for Napoleon’s second wife, Empress Marie-Louise, by Nitot (and now set with turquoises, not emeralds), and the diamond and emerald tiara made in 1819-20 by Bapst for the Duchess of Angoulême, who was queen of France for all of twenty minutes. Given the similarities to each of these pieces, it’s possible it was made during the same time frame.

1830: Historian Trond Norén Isaksen notes that family tradition says that the emeralds in this tiara were mined in Russia; emeralds weren’t discovered in Russia until 1830, so if that’s correct, it was actually made in the 1830s, a least a full decade later than the previous examples. Some have posited that the tiara was originally made for Empress Joséphine, Napoleon’s first wife, who died in 1814. If the post-1830 creation date is correct, the first owner is more likely Joséphine’s daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Leuchtenberg (who was born Princess Augusta of Bavaria). We know for sure that Augusta (pictured above with her first child, Joséphine of Leuchtenberg) acquired the tiara at some point — we just don’t know how or from whom.

1851: Sixty-two-year-old Augusta dies in Munich. Her jewels are divided among her three surviving daughters, Amélie (the Empress of Brazil), Joséphine (the Queen of Sweden and Norway), and Théodolinde (the Duchess of Urach). Amélie, the widow of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, lives in Lisbon, and the tiara finds a new home with her at the Palácio de Alvor-Pombal, which today is home to Portugal’s National Museum of Ancient Art.

Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway, ca. 1850s (source)

1873: Empress Amélie dies in Lisbon at the age of sixty. Her only child, Princess Maria Amélia, had died two decades before, and Amélie has only one living sister: Queen Joséphine, the widow of King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway. She’s already sixty-five, but Joséphine becomes her sister’s sole heir, inheriting her jewelry, including the emerald parure (as well as the Brazilian diamond parure).

Queen Sofia wears the emerald tiara

1876: Only three years after inheriting the emeralds from her sister, Queen Joséphine dies in Stockholm at the age of sixty-nine. She leaves the tiara to her thirty-nine-year-old daughter-in-law, Queen Sofia, the wife of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway.

The Connaught family at the 1911 coronation (L-R): The Duke of Connaught, Princess Patricia of Connaught, the Duchess of Connaught, Prince Arthur of Connaught, Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden (wearing the emerald parure), and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden

1911: King George V and Queen Mary are crowned in the United Kingdom, and Queen Sofia’s grandson and granddaughter-in-law, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and Crown Princess Margareta, are among those attending the coronation. Margareta is the new king’s first cousin; their fathers were both sons of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. For the event, Sofia loans the emerald parure to Margareta. The crown prince and princess are photographed with her family at the coronation, and the emeralds are on display in the portrait.

Princess Ingeborg (source)

1913: Seventy-seven-year-old Queen Sofia dies in the palace in Stockholm. Rather than designating the emeralds for the use of the country’s current queen, Victoria of Baden, Sofia leaves them to her daughter-in-law, Princess Ingeborg, the thirty-five-year-old wife of Sofia’s third son, Prince Carl. Sofia and Victoria had a tense relationship; Ingeborg was much closer to her mother-in-law. Moreover, though she was the wife of a younger son, Princess Ingeborg had served as Sweden’s de facto first lady during the last years of Oscar II’s reign, and it seems likely that she borrowed her mother-in-law’s emeralds during that period.

1926: Ingeborg wears the emerald parure during the wedding of her daughter, Princess Astrid of Sweden, and the Duke of Brabant (later King Leopold III of the Belgians). She also poses for a portrait wearing the emerald set the same year.

Crown Princess Märtha holds Prince Harald at his christening, 31 Mar 1937 (source)

1937: Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, born Princess Märtha of Sweden, borrows the necklace and earrings from the parure from her mother, Princess Ingeborg, and wears them at the christening of her son, Prince Harald, in March. By this time, Ingeborg has made alterations to the parure. She has had the large drop-shaped emeralds atop the
tiara removed and remade into a pair of earrings; in their
place, a jeweler has installed additional diamond palmette elements. By
this point, she has also removed most of the pendants from the necklace
and distributes them to various family members. Three of these pendants
were given to the late Queen Astrid of the Belgians; the emeralds from
those pendants are now a part of the emerald peacock tiara owned by the
grand ducal family of Luxembourg.

1937: In May, Ingeborg loans the tiara to her daughter, Crown Princess Märtha, for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom. Märtha sits for a set of portraits wearing the tiara. The alterations made by Ingeborg to the tiara are clearly visible in this set of portrait images.

1937: Six days after the British coronation, Ingeborg wears the tiara during the Silver Jubilee celebrations of her cousin, King Christian X of Denmark, in Copenhagen.

1940: World War II is being waged in Europe, and Crown Princess Märtha is at the train station in Stockholm, preparing to leave with her three children — Princess Ragnhild, Princess Astrid, and Prince Harald — for America. Princess Ingeborg meets her daughter at the station and hands her a package. Inside is the emerald parure; Ingeborg intends for Märtha to sell the valuable heirloom jewels if her family faces a financial crisis in the midst of war.

The royal family returns to Norway (source)
1945: War ends in Europe, and Märtha returns with her children to Norway. The emerald set comes with her, and the tiara becomes one of the grandest and most important pieces in the Norwegian royal vaults.

1948: Märtha wears the emerald parure to the inauguration of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.

1953: Märtha wears the emerald set to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, which means that the tiara appeared at each of the three most recent British coronations.

1953: In July, Märtha wears the emeralds at the celebrations for the fiftieth birthday of her husband, Crown Prince Olav.

1954: Crown Princess Märtha dies of cancer in Oslo at the age of fifty-three. Princess Ingeborg has outlived her daughter, and according to Trond Norén Isaksen, she expresses the wish that the emeralds be inherited by her grandson, Harald, who will one day be Norway’s king.

1950s: After the death of her mother, Princess Astrid of Norway serves as the nation’s first lady. She wears a number of her mother’s tiaras, including the emeralds, at official events like state banquets.

1968: Crown Prince Harald marries Sonja Haraldsen, who becomes the nation’s crown princess. She will eventually become the first Norwegian queen to wear the emeralds.

1960s-70s: Sonja begins wearing the emerald parure. Since her marriage, she has been the only member of the family to wear the tiara in public, cementing its place as a jewel reserved for the highest-ranking lady in the country.

1992: A year after becoming queen, Sonja wears the emeralds at the silver wedding celebrations for Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik of Denmark.

1995: In April, Sonja takes the emeralds with her to Madrid for a state visit to King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain.

1995: Sonja wears the emeralds at the November wedding of Prince Joachim of Denmark to Alexandra Manley (now the Countess of Frederiksborg) in Copenhagen.

1996: In April, Sonja brings the emerald set back to Sweden, wearing it to the party celebrating the fiftieth birthday of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

2001: Sonja wears the emeralds at the wedding of her son, Crown Prince Haakon, to Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby.

2003: The emeralds are Sonja’s pick for a state visit to Belgium that is really more of a family reunion: King Albert II of the Belgians and King Harald V of Norway are first cousins. Albert is the son of Queen Astrid, and Harald is the son of Crown Princess Märtha, which means that both of them are grandsons of Princess Ingeborg.

2004: Sonja chooses the emerald set for the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson in Copenhagen.

2005: The emeralds make an appearance at their old home, the royal palace in Stockholm, during a gala dinner with the Swedish royal family.

2005: In October, Sonja brings the emeralds with her on a state visit to Britain, where she wears them for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.

2006: Another milestone birthday for the Swedish king, another outing for the Norwegian emeralds: here they are at Carl XVI Gustaf’s sixtieth birthday party.

2010: Sonja wears the emeralds at Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden’s wedding — meaning that the set has been worn at the weddings of each of the three current Scandinavian royal heirs.