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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Saturday Sparkler Special: Queen Margrethe’s Tiaras

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All eyes have been on the jewel vaults of Denmark this week, as Queen Margrethe II celebrated her 75th birthday with a series of galas, dinners, and receptions. To wrap up our extensive coverage this week, today we’ve got a special edition of the Saturday Sparkler series, in which we survey Margrethe’s impressive roster of heirloom and modern tiaras. Enjoy!

 

 

The Emerald Parure Tiara

 

Current Owner: The state of Denmark
Original Owner: Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark, née Princess of Augustenburg
Maker: C.M. Weisshaupt, ca. 1840

Arguably the grandest tiara in Margrethe’s repertoire, the emerald tiara is a part of the Danish crown jewels. It was given to Queen Caroline Amalie as an anniversary present by her husband, King Christian VII. But it’s even older than its nineteenth-century creation date: Weisshaupt used emeralds that had belonged Queen Sophie Magdalena and Princess Charlotte, who both lived in Denmark during the eighteenth century. The tiara’s “crown jewel” distinction means several things: Margrethe does not own it, but has the right to use it whenever she wants; it can’t be taken out of the country; and only queens regnant and consort are allowed to wear it. Margrethe is only the latest in a long line of Danish queens to wear the piece: it’s been used by every single Danish queen since it was made. Read more on my favorite royal emeralds over here!

 

The Pearl Poiré Tiara

 

Current Owner: Danish Royal Property Trust
Original Owner: Princess Louise of the Netherlands, née Princess of Prussia
Maker: Unknown (German?) jeweler, ca. 1825

Margrethe has also been wearing this pearl and diamond tiara, which is a part of a “married” parure of pearl and diamond jewelry, since the beginning of her reign. When Princess Louise of Prussia married Prince Frederik of the Netherlands in 1825, her father, King Friedrich Wilhelm III, gave her this tiara. Her daughter, Louise, took the tiara with when she married the King of Sweden; and then her daughter, also named Louise, took it with her when she married the King of Denmark. When Queen Louise died in 1926, she placed the tiara in a trust, which means that it belongs to the monarch, not to any individual. Read about one of the tiara’s recent appearances over here.

 

 

The Floral Aigrette Tiara

 

Current Owner: Danish Royal Property Trust
Original Owner: Mrs. and Mrs. Lauritz Melchior
Maker: Unknown jeweler, ca. 1950s

In 1985, Margrethe received this versatile tiara as a gift from her mother, Queen Ingrid. The diamond tiara actually breaks into three pieces, which can be worn together or separately in various configurations. King Frederik IX bought it at auction for Queen Ingrid in 1963. He purchased it from Lauritz Melchior, a famous Danish-American opera singer. More about this inventive tiara here!

 

 

The Baden Palmette Tiara

 

Current Owner: Queen Margrethe II
Original Owner: Grand Duchess Louise of Baden, née Princess of Prussia
Maker: Koch, ca. mid 19th century

Margrethe’s inheritance from Queen Ingrid also included this diamond tiara, which features palmette motifs arranged to echo heart shapes. The piece was a wedding gift in 1856 from the King of Prussia to his daughter, Princess Louise, who was marrying Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden. Their daughter, Victoria, took the tiara with her to Sweden when she married King Gustav V; their granddaughter, Queen Ingrid of Denmark, eventually inherited the piece. Read more about the tiara here!

 

 

The Turquoise Daisy Bandeau

 

Current Owner: Queen Margrethe II
Original Owner: Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden, née Princess of Connaught (possibly?)
Maker: Unknown jeweler, ca. late 19th or early 20th century

Yet another tiara that Margrethe inherited from Queen Ingrid, this tiara playfully incorporates the Queen’s nickname, Daisy, into its design. (The French word for Daisy = marguerite.) Because of this, most think that the turquoise and diamond bandeau was one of the pieces that Ingrid received from her own mother, Crown Princess Margareta, who was also nicknamed “Daisy.” Margrethe loves turquoises — here’s a look at her extensive collection of turquoise pieces.

 

 

The Golden Poppies

 

Current Owner: Queen Margrethe II
Original Owner: Queen Margrethe II
Maker: Arje Griegst, ca. 1976

Margrethe loves modern jewelry, and this piece, designed specifically for her, certainly fits the bill. Made of gold, the headpiece attaches to the back of the wearer’s head via a small comb, and then spreads golden poppies and small bejeweled insects across the hair toward the forehead. Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but definitely avant-garde. Read more about this, and nine more wacky tiaras, over here.

 

 

The Naasut Tiara

 

Current Owner: Queen Margrethe II
Original Owner: Queen Margrethe II
Maker: Nicolai Appel, ca. 2012

The newest addition to Margrethe’s tiara collection is this piece, made of melted-down gold coins from Greenland. It was Greenland’s gift to Margrethe to mark her ruby jubilee, and the floral tiara also includes small rubies and diamonds scattered among its golden flowers. Read more about the entire Naasut demi-parure here!

 

Also once owned and/or worn by Margrethe? The Khedive of Egypt Tiara, the Alexandrine Diamond Drop Tiara, and Princess Dagmar’s Floral Tiara

Saturday Sparkler: Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara

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Queen Maud of Norway [source]

The biggest diamond tiara in the Norwegian royal vaults is the stunning diadem that belonged to Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway. However, there are reports that another historic diamond tiara — the one that once belonged to Queen Maud — has returned to the royal fold.

 
Queen Maud [source]
 
 

This tri-level diamond tiara was among the wedding presents that Princess Maud of Wales, the daughter of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, received when she married her first cousin, Prince Carl of Denmark, in 1896. The base of the tiara is a diamond bandeau; above that sits a level of diamond floral elements; and atop that is perched a row of thirteen diamond buttons. Trond Norén Isaksen explains that Maud sometimes swapped out the top row of diamonds for turquoises. After she inherited her mother’s diamond and turquoise circlet, however, Maud used the turquoises in other pieces of jewelry.

Maud in her 1902 coronation robes [source]
 

Princess Maud wore the diamond tiara at the coronation of her parents in 1902. And then, three years later, something rather unexpected happened. In 1905, the newly-independent people of Norway voted to elect Maud’s husband as the new king of their country. Carl accepted the job and took on the regnal name of King Haakon VII, and Maud became a queen. She wore her diamond tiara frequently during her tenure as Norway’s queen; she even chose to wear it for the wedding of her only son, Olav, to Princess Märtha of Sweden in 1929.

 

Queen Maud and Crown Prince Olav [source]
 

Maud’s jewels went through a strange thirty-year odyssey following her unexpected death. Queen Maud liked to travel back to her British homeland often to visit relatives, and during one of these visits in 1938, she died of a heart attack. She had brought her jewels with her on that particular trip, intending to have the pieces cleaned. They weren’t returned to Norway with the late queen’s body, and with the outbreak of World War II the following year, the jewels were stashed away in Windsor Castle for safekeeping.

 

It wasn’t until 1953 that the jewels were reclaimed by Maud’s son and daughter-in-law, Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha, who brought them back to Norway following the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. But then Märtha died unexpectedly in 1954, and Maud’s jewels were not brought out again until Olav’s son, the future King Harald V, married in 1968.  When Olav and Märtha’s three children finally divided up the late queen’s jewels, Princess Ragnhild chose this tiara from the collection. She wore it frequently at royal events, usually in rotation with the diamond and pearl Boucheron tiara that she received from her maternal grandmother, Princess Ingeborg.

 

Queen Maud [source]
 

But unlike the Boucheron tiara, Queen Maud’s diamond tiara reportedly returned to the royal collection after Ragnhild’s death in 2012. (The tiaras that Princess Astrid received from her grandmother’s collection are expected to do the same after her death one day.) But, if it is currently back in the vaults, it’s not yet surfaced on the heads of one of the current Norwegian royal ladies. Many seem to think that Crown Princess Mette-Marit might be the first to wear the tiara, but it could also show up on Queen Sonja or Princess Märtha Louise. What do you think, dear readers: which Norwegian princess will be the first to wear Queen Maud’s diamond tiara in public again?

Saturday Sparkler: The Henckel von Donnersmarck Tiara

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When you’re the wife of one of the richest men in the world, it only seems fair that you should be given a truly remarkable tiara. But I’ll bet even Katharina Henckel von Donnersmarck never predicted that her emerald and diamond tiara would one day be the most expensive tiara ever sold at auction.

Katharina received the tiara from her husband, Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck. The Henckel von Donnersmarcks are an old German noble family; by the end of the nineteenth century, they were the second wealthiest family in the entire country. (Second only to the Krupps — ever heard of a little gem called the Krupp diamond???)

Guido made his fortune as an industrialist, and he could certainly afford to keep the women he loved dripping in jewels. His first wife, Pauline, was a famous French courtesan who was better known as “La Païva.” Guido was obsessed with her, even after her death — so much so that, rumor has it, he kept her body in a large glass container of embalming fluid, weeping over her corpse each night. As one does, I suppose.

Perhaps a tiara made from some of the world’s rarest emeralds was a mea culpa from Guido to his second wife, Katharina? After all, she did have to put up with a corpse-worshipping spouse. Whatever the motive behind the gift, the tiara is undoubtedly a stunner. It was made at the turn of the twentieth century, perhaps the work of Chaumet.

The eleven emeralds weigh more than 500 carats, and they supposedly once belonged to Empress Eugénie of France (there are various theories about how Guido got the emeralds, but he had a history with Eugénie’s jewels — he once bought pearls from her collection for La Païva). The base of the tiara features a series of large cushion-cut diamonds resting atop a row of diamond laurels.

When the family decided to sell their tiara in 1979, they turned to Sotheby’s; it was purchased that November by a private buyer. And when that owner decided to sell, it was Sotheby’s again who handled the sale. Everyone expected the tiara to fetch a bundle — the pre-auction estimates were for between five and ten million dollars.

But when the gavel fell on this lot in 2011, a private buyer had splashed out a whopping $12.7 million on Katharina’s tiara. It was a world record price for a tiara sold at auction. We don’t know who purchased the piece, but it’s suspected that the buyer hails from North America. Here’s hoping he or she will want to loan the tiara to a museum some day soon so the rest of us can ogle the emeralds too!