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Jewels of Emperor Naruhito’s Enthronement (Part 2)

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STR/Japan Pool via Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

The enthronement celebrations in Japan continued with the first of four court banquets (called Kyoen-no-gi) that will be held at the imperial palace over the next several days. We got major tiaras from the imperial ladies and their foreign guests for this dinner — enjoy! (And catch up with our first enthronement jewel post over here!)

STR/Japan Pool via Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

Now officially proclaimed and enthroned, Emperor Naruhito presided over the banquet at the imperial palace.

STR/Japan Pool via Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

He was joined by Empress Masako. She wore the Meiji Tiara, further reinforcing its status as the most important tiara in the Japanese imperial vaults.

STR/Japan Pool via Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

With the tiara, she wore diamond floral earrings, a pair of diamond rivieres, and a diamond bracelet.

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We also caught a few (emphasis on few) decent glimpses of other imperial jewels. Crown Princess Kiko dazzled in the tiara and necklace from the family’s crown princely parure during the banquet.

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And Princess Kako wore her diamond parure, which was given to her on her twentieth birthday.

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The foreign tiaras sparkled mightily at the banquet, too. Queen Mathilde of the Belgians paired diamonds with a champagne-colored gown.

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Her jewels included the meander base of the Nine Provinces Tiara, diamond fringe earrings, and a diamond bracelet.

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King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema of Bhutan also attended the banquet.

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She wore an impressive necklace and earrings with a gorgeous bandeau-style hair ornament.

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Queen Letizia of Spain, here with King Felipe, wore a magnificent pink gown.

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She also piled on the diamonds, including Queen Ena’s Fleur-de-Lis Tiara (aka “La Buena”), the diamond earrings also from the joyas de pasar collection, and the fleur-de-lis brooch from her diamond and pearl tiara.

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Queen Maxima of the Netherlands also went with a pinkish-red gown with contrasting black elements.

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She wore the tiara, earrings, necklace, bracelet, and brooch from the Mellerio Ruby Parure for the occasion.

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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark shimmered in a gown with a built-in sparkling cape.

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She wore her Edwardian Tiara with the earrings that were made to coordinate with it.

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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden wore one of the tiaras she owns personally — the Boucheron Laurel Wreath Tiara — with earrings, a brooch, and a necklace from the royal vaults.

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Update: Thanks to lovely reader Lucas, we’ve got a few more jewels to share! Here’s a look at the tiara and topaz suite worn by the Queen of Malaysia. (The queen herself shared with Lucas via Twitter that the topazes belong to her mother!) The necklace from the topaz set was clearly designed with the Delhi Durbar Necklace in mind. Her tiara is the Malaysian state diadem.

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We’ve also got a look at a diamond suite worn by Queen LaMashwama, one of the wives of King Mswati III of Eswatini.

Jewels of Emperor Naruhito’s Enthronement (Part 1)

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KAZUHIRO NOGI/Pool/Getty Images

Get ready, everyone: time to survey the jewels of today’s magnificent enthronement in Japan! (And this is only part one…!)

STR/Japan Pool via Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

Emperor Naruhito began his reign when his father, Emperor Akihito, abdicated in May. On Tuesday, he began his official enthronement ritual with a visit to the Kashikodokoro sanctuary on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. Inside the shrine, he prayed and informed his ancestors — and the sun goddess — of his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

STR/Japan Pool via Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

Empress Masako also attended the ceremony, wearing similar traditional attire.

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Other members of the imperial family were there, too. Leading this rainy procession was the emperor’s brother and heir, Crown Prince Fumihito. He was followed by his wife, Crown Princess Kiko, and their daughters, Princess Mako and Princess Kako. Next walked Princess Akiko of Mikasa, Princess Yoko of Mikasa, Princess Takamado, and Princess Tsuguko of Takamado.

KAZUHIRO NOGI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

After the first ritual was complete, the entire imperial family gathered for the official enthronement ceremony, the Sokuirei-Seiden-no-gi, at the palace. A pair of lacquered platforms had been constructed, topped by a pair of curtained pavilions with elaborate decorations, including two golden phoenixes.

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The curtains were pulled back to reveal Emperor Naruhito in his finery. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bowed low in front of the newly enthroned emperor during the ceremony.

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Empress Masako was impressive in her imperial attire during the ceremony.

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During the ceremony, Emperor Naruhito officially read out the proclamation of his ascension to the throne.

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At the culmination of the ceremony, the gathered Japanese dignitaries shouted “banzai!” — wishing long life to the emperor.

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The imperial family was also gathered and carefully dressed in traditional attire. The crown prince always wears orange during this ceremony, and you’ll see the Crown Prince Fumihito followed that tradition.

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Crown Princess Kiko stood near her husband during the enthronement ceremony…

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…as did their daughters, Princess Mako and Princess Kako.

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Emperor Naruhito’s uncle and aunt, the Prince and Princess Hitachi, were present as well.

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During the ceremony, Princess Akiko of Mikasa and Princess Yoko of Mikasa stood behind Prince and Princess Hitachi.

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Beside Princess Hitachi was Princess Tomohito of Mikasa, and behind her were Princess Takamado and Princess Tsuguko of Takamado.

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Foreign dignitaries from around the world witnessed the ceremony, including numerous royals. For the enthronement, they followed a formal daytime dress code, similar to the one mandated for Prinsjesdag in the Netherlands.

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King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, who are close friends of the new emperor and empress, attended the ceremony. Here, you’ll see them greeting Prince Albert II of Monaco, who attended without Princess Charlene.

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Maxima glittered in diamonds, including the family’s gorgeous lattice necklace and earrings made using clusters from the Stuart Tiara.

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King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia represented Spain at the ceremony.

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Queen Letizia wore emerald earrings that come from the collection of her mother-in-law, Queen Sofia. (See another previous outing here!) But it was her necklace — the diamond collet necklace from the joyas de pasar — that grabbed most of the attention. The necklace appears to have been shortened. I’m wondering perhaps if the bracelet she’s wearing here was made using part of the necklace? It’s possible that the piece is convertible.

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The Sultan of Pahang, who was recently elected King of Malaysia, attended the ceremony with his wife, Queen Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah.

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She sparkled in a diamond necklace and a scattering of bejeweled butterfly pins.

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King Philippe and Queen Mathilde traveled from Belgium for the occasion. (It’s a short trip, so they can make it home in time for the Duchess of Brabant’s eighteenth birthday celebrations.) Mathilde tipped her hat to the ladies of the imperial family, wearing sleek pastels for the enthronement.

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She wore Queen Fabiola’s diamond and pearl drop earrings, and the outline of her dress and cape sparkled, too.

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King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema of Bhutan were there, too.

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She wore a gorgeous beaded necklace and earrings for the occasion.

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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden accompanied her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, to the ceremony.

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With her royal blue gown and hat, she wore earrings with circle pendants, plus a glittering bracelet and one of the brooches from the family’s amethyst parure.

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Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark represented the Danish royal family at the enthronement.

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Mary was seated directly beside another prominent royal — the Prince of Wales — during the ceremony.

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Mary wore the earrings, necklace (sans pendants), and bracelet from the grand ruby parure for the ceremony. If you know your royal jewel history, you’ll realize that this means that the ruby set has witnessed both a Japanese imperial enthronement (Naruhito, Imperial Palace in Tokyo, 2019) and a French imperial coronation (Napoleon I, Notre-Dame de Paris, 1804). Amazing.

Oh, and PS: there were even more (former) Japanese princesses in attendance! The emperor’s sister, Sayako Kuroda, wore the typical Japanese imperial daytime jewelry uniform (pearls and a brooch). Noriko Senge, the second daughter of Princess Takamado, jumped the jewelry gun just a bit and wore a diamond fringe tiara (!) for the enthronement.

Speaking of tiaras, we’ll have a look at the jewels from the evening banquet shortly! Stay tuned…

Royal Wedding Jewels: Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoleon and Countess Olympia of Arco-Zinneberg

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FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP via Getty Images

Royals from all over Europe gathered in Paris for something special this weekend: the wedding of a member of one of France’s former reigning families to a descendant of German, Italian, and Austrian royalty.

FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP via Getty Images

On Saturday, 33-year-old Jean-Christophe Bonaparte, Prince Napoleon married 31-year-old Countess Olympia of Arco-Zinneberg. Jean-Christophe is a Harvard-educated investment banker who works in the private equity field in London. As his name and title suggest, he’s also the descendant of the former French imperial family. Olympia has degrees in political science and art history from Yale and Columbia. The pair met while Olympia was studying in Paris, and they became engaged in Switzerland earlier this year.

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Jean-Christophe can claim impressive, extensive royal heritage on both sides of his family. On his father’s side, he is the senior male descendant of the Bonaparte family; he’s the great-great-great-grandson of Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon’s youngest brother. His great-grandmother was Princess Clementine of Belgium, the youngest daughter of the notorious King Leopold II, which means that Jean-Christophe also related to the royal families of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. Jean-Christophe’s mother is Princess Beatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. She’s the daughter of the late Prince Ferdinand, one of the claimants to the headship of that former royal house.

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Countess Olympia is the daughter of Count Riprand of Arco-Zinneberg (pictured above escorting his daughter), who is a great-grandson of the last King and Queen of Bavaria. Her mother is Archduchess Maria Beatrice of Austria-Este; she’s a daughter of the late Archduke Robert and his wife, Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta. Olympia’s maternal great-grandparents were Emperor Karl and Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary and Prince Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta and his French royal wife, Princess Anne of Orleans. Her royal connections are also far-ranging; among other links, she is the niece of Prince Lorenz and Princess Astrid of Belgium.

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Olympia wore a modern, avant-garde wedding gown from Oscar de la Renta’s Fall 2019 bridal collection.

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Olympia’s youngest sister, Countess Giorgiana, helped her wrangle the dress as she arrived for the ceremony.

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The gown featured a matching capelet, a lengthy train, and a matching cathedral veil.

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Olympia wore a bandeau-style tiara set with diamonds for the wedding. Royal jewel historian Vincent Meylan writes that the tiara belongs to Olympia’s grandmother, Princess Margherita. The piece can also be worn as a necklace — and, indeed, it was worn that way by Olympia’s aunt, Archduchess Isabella, when she wed Count Andrea Czarnocki-Lucheschi in 1997.

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The grand sapphire and diamond earrings that Olympia wore were loaned to her by her mother, Archduchess Maria Beatrice. The earrings were a wedding gift to Maria Beatrice from her parents. She wore them for her wedding to Olympia’s father in 1980, and more recently, they were worn by Olympia’s elder sister, Countess Anna Theresa, when she married Colin McKenzie. (I covered that wedding in an earlier post here!)

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Olympia wore her incredible diamond engagement ring on her right hand for the wedding ceremony. The 40-carat ring made news earlier this year when it was stolen in Paris; police were able to track other property stolen during the same theft and happily recovered the ring.

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The couple wed in a civil ceremony on Thursday. On Saturday, a grand religious wedding ceremony was held in the Cathedral of Saint-Louis-des-Invalides, part of the enormous complex of Les Invalides in Paris’s 7th arrondissement. The cathedral is located directly beside the Dome of Les Invalides, which houses the tombs of numerous Bonapartes, including Napoleon I and the groom’s direct ancestor, Jerome.

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The couple emerged in the grand court of honor after the ceremony. They’ll now be known by (some) Bonapartists as Prince and Princess Napoleon.

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As you’d expect from such a royally-connected couple, the guest list for the wedding was extensive. Here’s a look at the lovely pearls worn by the groom’s mother, Princess Beatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Interestingly, she and the groom’s father, Prince Charles, never had a religious wedding ceremony, a decision that reportedly irked both of their families. She and Jean-Christophe’s father divorced in 1989.

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Prince Charles also attended his son’s wedding. You might wonder why/how Jean-Christophe could be the head of the house when his father is still living — it all stems from Charles and Beatrice’s divorce and Charles’s subsequent remarriage. To put a long story short: Charles’s father, Prince Louis, was upset by his son’s decision to remarry without his permission (as well as Charles’s republican tendencies), and he decided to make Jean-Christophe his direct heir in his will. Charles has maintained that he’s still the current head of the House of Bonaparte. Happily, Charles and Jean-Christophe’s relationship doesn’t seem to have been damaged by Louis’s decisions.

Anyway — that’s Charles attending the wedding, with the bride’s mother, Maria Beatrice of Arco-Zinneberg, on his arm.

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Jean-Christophe’s grandmother, the Dowager Princess Napoleon, also attended the wedding. Born Alix de Foresta, she comes from a long line of French and Italian aristocrats.

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Members of several reigning royal families were also in attendance. The newly-engaged Princess Beatrice of York attended alongside her fiance, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. (Sadly, she wore no jewelry of note, and even her engagement ring was hidden in most photos.)

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Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg attended without his grand duchess, as Maria Teresa is still recovering from her recent knee surgery.

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But lots of other members of the grand ducal family were also in attendance, including Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie. She wore a pair of sparkling earrings with her red and cream outfit.

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Prince Felix and Princess Claire of Luxembourg were there, too. She wore a headband studded with crystals and pearls.

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Prince Louis of Luxembourg made an appearance, too — he’s pictured here with a cousin, Prince Laurent of Belgium.

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The extended Nassau family was also there. Princess Marie-Astrid attended with her husband, Archduke Carl Christian of Austria (a relative of the bride through her mother’s Habsburg family ties).

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Prince Jean of Luxembourg was also there, along with his wife, Countess Diane.

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So was Prince Jean’s daughter, Princess Marie-Gabrielle de Nassau, with her husband, Antonius Willms.

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Prince Jean’s twin sister, Princess Margaretha, attended with her husband, Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein. They’re pictured here with Archduke Simeon of Austria, another grandson of Emperor Karl and Empress Zita, and his wife, Princess Maria of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. (She’s a cousin of the Spanish royal family through her late father, Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria, and a member of the extended French royal family through her mother, Princess Anne of Orleans.)

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Princess Margaretha and Prince Nikolaus’s elder daughter, Princess Maria Anunciata of Liechtenstein, also attended the wedding. (She’s pictured here with Prince Laurent of Belgium, who took pictures with a whole lot of other guests for reasons unknown.) Love those statement earrings!

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Rounding out the grand ducal attendees: Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla, who wore a lovely crescent brooch for the ceremony.

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Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz helped represent the Belgian royal family, but they’re also the aunt and uncle of the bride. (Prince Lorenz is the younger brother of Countess Olympia’s mother.)

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Princess Maria Laura of Belgium, first cousin of the bride, wore a sparkling headband for the wedding. These bejeweled headbands are really exploding in popularity, but they do look maybe a little to much like a bridal tiara for wedding-guest wear, don’t they?

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The princely contingent from Liechtenstein also included Prince Philipp (brother of Prince Hans-Adam II) and his wife, Princess Isabelle. She wore a very pearly necklace for the occasion, as well as a bold stack of bracelets.

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We also saw a whole lot of guests who are either members of former reigning families or — as in the case of Jaime de Marichalar, former members of reigning families. (He’s the ex-husband of Infanta Elena of Spain.)

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The Duke and Duchess of Braganza, pretenders to the defunct throne of Portugal, were there. Isabel wore a four-stranded pearl necklace and pearl earrings.

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The former royal family of Greece was represented by Crown Prince Pavlos and his daughter, Princess Maria Olympia. She wore a small pair of hoop earrings for the wedding. (Pavlos’s brother, Prince Philippos, was also there with his partner, Nina Flohr.)

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Another Greek royal cousin, Prince Michael, was at the wedding with his wife, Marina. Michael also has significant French royal ties, as his mother was born Princess Francoise of Orleans and he was raised in France.

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Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, widow of the late Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma, was accompanied to the wedding by her son, Prince Dimitri (who is a noted jewelry designer).

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Archduke Rudolf of Austria, another Habsburg relative of the bride, attended with his wife, Archduchess Marie Helene. They live in Belgium and received Belgian titles in the 1970s.

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Prince Charles-Henri de Lobkowicz attended the wedding with his mother, Princess Marie Francoise of Bourbon-Parma, whose father was the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne.

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The Countess of Paris, wife of the Orleanist pretender to the French throne, was also present for this Bonaparte wedding. Philomena brought along two of her daughters, Antoinette and Louise-Marguerite.

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Prince Christian of Hanover, a member of the former royal family of Hanover, attended the wedding with his new wife, Alessandra.

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Members of the groom’s extended maternal family were also present for the wedding. His aunt, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, attended with her husband, Alexandre Ursulet and their family.

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And you’ll definitely recognize the groom’s uncle and his family! Yep, that’s Prince Carlo of Bourbon-Two Sicilies with his wife, Camilla, and their daughters, Maria Chiara and Maria Carolina.

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This really was an old-fashioned dynastic royal wedding, but the bride and the groom have insisted that it’s a love match. Given the likelihood of a French restoration (not exactly great odds for that!), that’s probably for the best.

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Here’s hoping for a happy future for this well-connected duo!