Don’t Miss a Single Sparkling Moment! Sign up for The Court Jeweller Newsletter

The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Tiara Timeline: The Leuchtenberg Sapphire Tiara

by // Leave a Comment

With the Bernadottes on a state visit to France this week and then hosting the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm next week, there are going to be plenty of grand jewels on display. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Queen Silvia decides to wear today’s tiara, the diadem from the Leuchtenberg sapphire parure, at one of the events. Since the Bernadottes are currently visiting Paris, let’s have a look at how a tiara created in imperial France made its way to the shores of Sweden, shall we? To do that, we have to travel back in time to the grand and tumultuous court of Napoléon Bonaparte…

 

(source)

1806: On January 14 in Munich, Princess Augusta (pictured above ca. 1820), the eldest daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, marries Eugène de Beauharnais. The groom is the only son of Joséphine de Beauharnais. Two days before the wedding, Eugène was officially adopted by his mother’s husband, Napoléon Bonaparte. Augusta’s father — who has only been king for two weeks — is one of Napoléon’s most important allies in Germany, a relationship reinforced by this royal marriage.

Among Princess Augusta’s wedding gifts is an elaborate diamond and sapphire parure that was almost certainly made by Marie-Étienne Nitot, the French imperial court jeweler. The most likely giver of the sapphires is Napoléon, who had engineered this marriage and within weeks would position Eugène and Augusta as heirs of the throne of Italy. The tiara, which features an elaborate diamond base topped by sapphires, is so flexibly constructed so that it lays flat in its case. The sapphires can also be interchanged with a set of upright pear-shaped pearls.

1817: With Napoléon finally deposed and exiled, it is clear that Eugène and Augusta’s future will be as a part of the extended Bavarian royal family, not as the Italian king and queen. On November 14, King Maximilian I Joseph bestows the style and title of His Royal Highness the Duke of Leuchtenberg on Eugène (pictured above). Because of this title change, the sapphires will become known to history as the Leuchtenberg sapphire parure.

(source)

1823: Eugène and Augusta’s eldest daughter, Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, marries Crown Prince Oscar of Sweden in a proxy ceremony in Munich on May 22. Joséphine adopts the Swedish spelling of her name and becomes known as Crown Princess Josefina. Although he’s a Swedish prince, Oscar’s parents were both born in France and were both important figures at the imperial court of Napoléon. King Carl XIV Johan (born Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte) was one of the Marshals of the Empire, while Queen Desideria (born Désirée Clary) had been engaged to marry Napoléon until he met Joséphine de Beauharnais. Napoléon was one of Crown Prince Oscar’s godfathers. Above, a young Josefina is depicted wearing her mother’s sapphires around the time of her marriage.

1844: King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden dies, and Oscar and Josefina become the King Oscar I (pictured above) and Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway.

1851: The Duchess of Leuchtenberg dies in Munich. In her will, Augusta leaves the Leuchtenberg sapphires to her eldest daughter, Queen Josefina. (She leaves another important parure, her emeralds, to her second daughter, Amélie, the widow of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil.) Above, Josefina wears the tiara with the upright pearls, which have apparently since left the Bernadotte collection.

1859: King Oscar I dies in Stockholm; he is succeeded by his and Josefina’s eldest son, Carl XV (pictured above). Although she is now the Queen Dowager, Josefina does not hand over her jewels to Carl’s wife, Queen Louise. Instead, she keeps her jewelry collection, including her mother’s sapphires, largely intact.

1872: King Carl XV dies without a legitimate male heir. He is succeeded by Oscar and Josefina’s third son, who becomes King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (pictured above). Oscar is married to Sofia of Nassau, a German princess.

(source)

1876: Queen Josefina (pictured above around 1850) dies in Stockholm. In her will, she leaves the Leuchtenberg sapphires to her son, Oscar II.

(source)

1881: Crown Prince Gustaf, Oscar and Sofia’s eldest son, marries Princess Victoria of Baden on September 20 in Germany. The Leuchtenberg sapphires become a wedding gift for the second time when Oscar and Sofia bestow the set on their new daughter-in-law. Clearly fond of the sapphires, Victoria wears the tiara in numerous official portraits during her lifetime. Above, she poses in the sapphires around 1902.

1907: King Oscar II dies, and Gustaf and Victoria become King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria of Sweden.

(source)

1930: Queen Victoria dies in her villa in Rome. Instead of leaving the sapphires to her daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Louise, she decides to bequeath the jewels to the Bernadotte family foundation. This decision ensures that the Leuchtenberg sapphires remain in trust in Sweden, which means that they are no longer private property and cannot leave the family. It also means that any of the royal women entitled to wear the family’s jewels can use the sapphires, though in practice, they are only used by the highest-ranking royal lady.

1938: Crown Princess Louise, wife of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and therefore de facto first lady of Sweden, wears the Leuchtenberg sapphires to the celebrations for the 80th birthday of her father-in-law, King Gustaf V. (She’s chatting with King Haakon VII of Norway at the birthday banquet in the photo above.) The sapphires become signature jewels for Louise, who poses in numerous portraits wearing them.

1950: In October, King Gustaf V dies, and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and Crown Princess Louise become King Gustaf VI Adolf and Queen Louise of Sweden.

1953: In December, Queen Louise wears the sapphires to the Nobel Prize Ceremony. (The woman sitting beside her is Clementine Churchill.)

1965: Queen Louise dies in March. The new Swedish first lady is her stepdaughter-in-law, Princess Sibylla, who wears the sapphires until her death in 1972.

1973: King Gustaf VI Adolf dies and is succeeded by his grandson, King Carl XVI Gustaf.

1976: King Carl XVI Gustaf is engaged to marry Silvia Sommerlath, a German commoner. Before the wedding, the highest-ranking Swedish royal lady is one of the king’s elder sisters, Princess Birgitta of Sweden and Hohenzollern. (Birgitta isn’t the king’s eldest sister, but she is the only one who married another royal. Until Carl XVI Gustaf’s reign, royals who married commoners lost their titles and statuses. So even though Princess Margaretha is older, by 1976 Birgitta was her senior in rank.) At the ball held the night before the royal wedding, Princess Birgitta wears the Leuchtenberg sapphires. It’s the only time she ever wears the set, as the country gains a new senior royal lady when Silvia becomes queen the following day. (At the pre-wedding ball, Silvia wears the Connaught tiara that was a favorite of the late Princess Sibylla — you can see her wearing the tiara in the picture above.)

1978: Queen Silvia of Sweden wears the sapphires at the Nobel Prize Ceremony.

1980: King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia make a state visit to France. Silvia brings the sapphires back to their original home country and wears them during a banquet at the Palace of Versailles.

1982: Queen Silvia wears the sapphires at the Nobel Prize Ceremony. On this occasion, she demonstrates the flexibility of the tiara by wearing it in a more open form.

2001: Queen Silvia wears the sapphires at the Nobel Prize Ceremony.

2004: Queen Silvia wears the sapphires at the Nobel Prize Ceremony.

2006: Queen Silvia wears the sapphires at the Nobel Prize Ceremony.

2007: Silvia wears the sapphires at a gala dinner for the Nobel laureates.

2008: During a state visit from Luxembourg, Queen Silvia wears the sapphires at the state banquet at Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm.

2010: Silvia wears the sapphires at the Nobel Prize Ceremony.

2012: Queen Silvia wears the sapphires at the Nobel Prize Ceremony.

Stay tuned: our second Holiday Wishlist post will be up later this afternoon!

Royal Jewel Rewind: Nobel Prize Ceremony 2009

by // Leave a Comment

In ten days, the Swedish royal family will gather in Stockholm for the presentation of the majority of this year’s Nobel prizes. (The peace prize is presented separately in Oslo.) In the lead up to this year’s ceremony, we’re going to be looking back to the jewels worn at Nobels past, starting with the ceremony held five years ago in 2009.

The three senior Swedish ladies all attended the Prize ceremonies in 2009. It was a big year for the Bernadottes: Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine both made engagement announcements (though Madeleine would call hers off the following spring), Daniel Westling received a successful kidney transplant, and Prince Carl Philip celebrated his 30th birthday.

For the prize ceremony, Queen Silvia chose the large diamond tiara known by the Bernadottes as “Queen Sofia’s tiara” — and generally called the “Nine-Prong” by royal jewel lovers. It was made around 1860 for Sofia of Nassau, the wife of King Oscar II; today it’s a part of the Bernadotte jewel foundation.

Silvia paired the tiara with a collection of diamond and pearl jewelry. Her necklace, a single strand of pearls, is a major Bernadotte heirloom. The necklace, which features a diamond clasp, was a part of the collection of King Carl XIV Johan. The diamond and pearl drop earrings are equally important; they have been in the family since the early nineteenth century and were reportedly worn by Joséphine of Leuchtenberg. Silvia often wears the necklace and the earrings together as a set.

The brooch that Silvia has used to secure the sash of the Order of the Seraphim is the diamond floral brooch from the Brazilian (or Braganza) parure. The brooch was a part of the grand diamond set left in 1873 to Joséphine of Leuchtenberg by her sister, Amélie, the widow of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Opposite the brooch, Silvia wears the diamond-studded family order of her husband, King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Thanks to the inventive work of one of the photographers covering the event, we can also see that Silvia wore a diamond bracelet on her right wrist, plus the three rings she usually wears on her left hand: her diamond engagement ring, her wedding band, and a diamond and ruby ring.

Crown Princess Victoria also selected a diamond tiara for the 2009 Nobels: the family’s diamond six-button tiara. The six diamond buttons on this tiara are floral, featuring ten small round diamonds hugging a larger floral cluster of seven additional diamonds. These buttons are the same diamond rosettes that were attached to the coronation crown of King Carl XIV Johan in 1818; the tiara itself was apparently assembled during the second half of the twentieth century for the use of Princess Lilian. Victoria wore the piece at this event with two additional rows of diamonds at the base.

With the button tiara, Victoria wore a set of jewels from the family’s nineteenth-century diamond and amethyst parure. These diamond and amethyst pieces are said to have belonged to Empress Joséphine, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Victoria wears the parure’s earrings, the necklace made of two bracelets, and one of the brooches.

Victoria also wore two bracelets, plus her diamond engagement ring, the Order of the Seraphim, and her father’s family order.

Victoria wasn’t the only Bernadotte to pick a button tiara for the ceremony. Her younger sister, Princess Madeleine, wore the family’s diamond four-button tiara for the first time in public. While the other tiara features diamond rosettes, these diamond buttons feature seven round diamonds encircling a central diamond in a sunburst design. The Bernadotte women have been wearing this simpler button tiara since the mid-twentieth century.

Madeleine’s necklace is actually the converted version of another tiara: it’s the modern diamond fringe tiara from her mother’s private jewelry collection. In 2013, Madeleine wore this piece as her wedding tiara. She also wore a simple pair of diamond drop earrings.

Madeleine used a small round diamond brooch to secure the sash of the Order of the Seraphim. She’s also wearing her father’s family order, plus a piece of jewelry that has long since left her jewelry box: the diamond engagement ring given to her by Jonas Bergström.

On her right wrist, Madeleine appears to be wearing another gift from Jonas: a Cartier love bracelet. Like the engagement ring, it’s long gone; she hasn’t been seen wearing this piece in public since 2010. (From this angle, it also appears that Madeleine has used a second small diamond brooch to secure the back of her sash, something royal ladies frequently do.)

 Stay tuned later today for the first of our holiday wishlist posts!

This Week in Royal Jewels: November 21-27

by // Leave a Comment

November 21-27, 2014
We’re officially in the holiday season now, and it’s time to marvel at the lovely jewels worn by royals this week!
10. On Tuesday, the Duchess of Cornwall visited Birmingham University’s School of Jewellery. She kept her own jewels simple — pearl earrings and a few bracelets — but the visit provided a glimpse into the work of Britain’s up-and-coming jewel designers.

9. Queen Letizia of Spain wore her oval pendant earrings, plus a bright red lip, to attend an event on volunteerism in Palma de Mallorca on Thursday.

8. Letizia wore another pair of pendant earrings — this time in gold and rubies — at an event on Monday celebrating the 75th anniversary of the CSIC in Madrid.

7. The Duchess of Cambridge supported one of her patronages, the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, at the launch of their new charity appeal on Tuesday. She accessorized with her Kiki McDonough green amethyst earrings and Mappin and Webb’s Fortune necklace.

6. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands wore dramatic earrings and a diamond bracelet to an event at the orchestra in The Hague on Friday.

5. Wearing simple earrings, a diamond pendant, and a large cuff bracelet, Infanta Elena of Spain represented her brother, King Felipe, at the funeral of the Duchess of Alba in Seville on Friday.

4. Queen Mathilde of the Belgians chose gold jewelry, including earrings, a watch, and a bracelet, for her visit to a retirement home on Friday.

3. Queen Sofia of Spain wore dramatic jewels at an awards ceremony in Valencia on Tuesday.

2. On Tuesday, Queen Silvia of Sweden wore her multicolored pearls, a large brooch, and several bracelets from her charity, the World Childhood Foundation, to accept the Martin Buber Plaque in the Netherlands.

1. The British royal jewel collection got a little bit larger this week! In her role as president of the International Equestrian Foundation, Princess Haya of Jordan presented Queen Elizabeth II with the organization’s inaugural lifetime achievement award. The award included a white gold and diamond brooch designed as a series of interlocking horseshoes:

I have a feeling we’ll see HM debut this one at Epsom or Ascot this year!