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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: May 23-29

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May 23-29, 2014
Lots of sparkle this week, with Kate, Max, Stephanie, and Sonja showing off a bit of glitter. When you’re done enjoying the royal jewels worn this week, head over to The Royal Roundup for a rundown of the many major royal events taking place in June!


10. The Duchess of Cambridge — or, for the day, the Countess of Strathearn — spent the day with her husband in Scotland on Thursday. She debuted a new brooch for the occasion.

Royal reporters shared that the brooch, which features a Celtic knot design, was one of Kate’s wedding gifts, though the identity of the giver has been kept private.

9. The Dutch royal couple is on a visit to Germany, and on Tuesday, Queen Maxima once again demonstrated her innovative approach to the family’s jewel collection. All of the pink stones she wears are kunzites, but her brooch is a combination of two pieces of jewelry: the top is part of a set of diamond brooches, while the diamond and kunzite pendant can be worn suspended from either a brooch or a necklace. The upper portion of Max’s earrings were often worn by Queen Juliana. (As always, more on the Dutch royal jewels, especially these earrings, is available here.)

8. The kunzites weren’t Maxima’s only jewelry outing in Germany; she also wore diamonds and pearls to visit a research facility on Monday. The brooch she wears is an heirloom from the era of Queen Emma. The piece features a natural pearl surrounded by two circular rows of diamonds.

7. In Belgium, Queen Mathilde went for a color-coordinated look while attending a lunch for the judges of the Queen Elisabeth Voice Competition, pairing green pendant earrings with a bright green dress.

6. At the annual Grand Prix gala in Monaco, Princess Charlene debuted some new pieces of jewelry by Repossi (the same jewelers who made her engagement ring): a ruby ring and a rather enormous gold cuff bracelet. (More photos and information on the bracelet here.)

5. The closing mass of the Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg was held on Sunday, and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie brought out some lovely gold jewelry for the event. (Also, I agree with Sydney re: the hair!)

4. One more jewelry outing for Max this week — she really is one of our most bejeweled royal ladies these days, isn’t she? These golden pendant earrings, worn for an award ceremony on Saturday in Middelburg, are very typical of her style.

3. The garden parties at Buckingham Palace are in full swing, and on Wednesday, the Queen welcomed members of the Household Cavalry (including her grandson, Prince Harry) and their families to the palace. To honor them, she replaced her usual brooch with the badges of the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals.

2. The Scandinavian royals have continued commemorating the bicentenary of the Norwegian Constitution. At the end of last week, the celebrations moved to Denmark, where a gala was held at the opera house in Copenhagen. For the occasion, Queen Sonja sported a brooch that dates back more than a century: it was one of Queen Maud’s wedding presents.

1. A bit of a surprise for our top jewelry story of the week, but let’s face it, who wore more bling than Prince Henrik of Denmark did in the official portrait to commemorate his 80th birthday? Among other things, he’s wearing the collar of the Order of the Elephant, the highest order of Danish chivalry. (There are also two other people in the painting, but they’re both Henrik, too. He’s being stalked a bit by his younger selves, apparently.)

The Top Ten: Royal Emeralds

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As the month of May draws to a close, we’d be remiss not to discuss the birthstone of all of the May babies out there: the emerald. In various cultures, emeralds were thought to bring great happiness to the wearer, especially to new married couples; they were also supposed to protect you from various diseases and even act as an antidote to poisons! (Don’t try that one at home.)

Today, emeralds are one of the most desirable precious gemstones out there, and nearly every royal collection has at least one major emerald piece. Here’s my top ten list of royal emerald jewelry. Feel free to offer your own list in the comments!

10. The Greek Emeralds: Originally from Russia, these cabochon emeralds came to Greece with Olga Constantinovna, wife of King George I. They have been set and reset various times; the current parure dates to the era of Queen Elisabeth (whose initial can be seen in the design of the tiara). Today, they’re worn by the former Greek queen, Anne-Marie (pictured above).

[via Wikimedia Commons]

9. The Seven Emerald Tiara: Part of the state jewels of Iran, this tiara features seven large cabochon emeralds. It was made in 1958 by Harry Winston for the last empress of Iran, Farah Diba. The jewels were retained by the state after the revolution, and today they are on display to the public in Tehran.

8. The Norwegian Emeralds: One of the many sets of jewelry once owned by Queen Josefina of Sweden (granddaughter of Josephine de Beauharnais), these emeralds nearly saved a future king. Princess Ingeborg of Sweden gave them to her daughter, Crown Princess Martha of Sweden, on the eve of World War II, so that Martha could sell them if she and her children faced problems in exile. Today, the emeralds are worn by Queen Sonja (pictured above).

[via Wikimedia Commons]

7. Grand Duchess Ella’s Emerald Kokoshnik: This tiara, featuring a geometric design studded with cabochon emeralds, was a wedding gift to Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna in 1884. Eventually sold by the Romanovs after the revolution, it was purchased by the Yugoslavian royals. Queen Maria of Yugoslavia (pictured above) wore it for years before selling it to Van Cleef & Arpels, who removed the emeralds.

6. The Chaumet Emerald Tiara: Often derided for its resemblance to a superheroine’s headpiece, this tiara from the grand ducal family of Luxembourg’s collection dates to the art deco period. Chaumet set a single, enormous cabochon emerald amid diamond designs. The piece is worn today by Grand Duchess Maria Teresa (pictured above).

5. The Swedish Emeralds: Among the vast jewelry holdings of the Swedish royal family is a demi-parure of emeralds (with a necklace and two brooches, but no tiara). The necklace from the set was originally worn as a belt by the first king from the Bernadotte dynasty, Carl XIV Johan of Sweden; it was later shortened. The emeralds reside in the family’s jewel foundation, and they’re often paired with one of the all-diamond tiaras from the royal collection. Crown Princess Victoria (pictured above) wore them at the Nobel ceremony in 2012.

4. The Danish Emeralds: Part of the nation’s crown jewels, the Danish emerald parure is on display at Rosenborg Castle — unless Queen Margrethe II (pictured above) decides to wear it. The parure was made in 1840, but the emeralds have been in the family for at least a century longer. This set is one that can only be worn by queens or queens consort.

3. Queen Mary’s Art Deco Emerald Choker: Famous for its “Disco Di” appearance as a headband in 1985 (pictured above), this choker was originally part of the extensive Delhi Durbar parure. In 1981, the Queen gave this to the new Princess of Wales as a part of her wedding presents. Queen Mary wore it as a choker necklace, and most of the time, Princess Diana did, too — even after her divorce. It was returned to the palace vaults after her death in 1997. And technically, this necklace is also a part of…

2. The Cambridge Emeralds: Won by the Duchess of Cambridge (Queen Mary’s grandmother) in a charity lottery in the nineteenth-century, this cache of emeralds nearly left royal hands altogether when Queen Mary’s brother bequeathed them to his mistress. Mary reacquired them and made them the workhorses of her collection, setting them in the Delhi Durbar parure and using them to create an alternate setting for the Vladimir Tiara (pictured above).

[via Wikimedia Commons]

1. The Duchess of Angoulême’s Emerald Tiara: Housed today in the Louvre, this diamond and emerald tiara was made ca. 1820 by Bapst for Princess Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême. She was the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and she was queen of France herself — for roughly twenty minutes. The tiara was worn by Empress Eugenie, and then was sold when the country auctioned off all of its crown jewels. It only returned to France in the twenty-first century, but now you can see up close and in person (as in the display pictured above).