Sweden – Page 96

Meghan’s Wedding Dress (and Tiara!) To Be Displayed

09.04.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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Late last week, the Royal Collection announced an exciting upcoming exhibition, A Royal Wedding: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

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The exhibition will feature the wedding dress, veil, and tiara worn by Meghan Markle for her wedding to Prince Harry in May 2019. (Harry’s uniform, still in regular use, won’t be displayed, but an identical one will be included in the exhibition.)

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Visitors will be able to see the wedding attire in two venues. The exhibition will be housed in Windsor Castle from October 26, 2018, until January 6, 2019. Later, the display will be moved to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where visitors will be able to see the exhibition from June 13, 2019, until October 6, 2019. Tickets for the exhibition can be purchased through the Royal Collection Trust website.

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Meghan’s Givenchy wedding gown will surely be the highlight for many, but the exhibition will also mark the first time that Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau is displayed to the public.

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Until the exhibition launches in October, our post featuring close-up images of the tiara will give you the best views of the sparkler so far.

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Exhibitions of royal wedding gowns have become increasingly popular over the past two decades, and Meghan’s dress is the latest in a long line to be placed on public display.

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The Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding gown (and the Cartier Halo Tiara) went on display at Buckingham Palace in the summer of 2011.

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Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding dress, which dates to 1947, has gone on display several times, including this special exhibition marking her 60th wedding anniversary in 2007. On this occasion, Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara and the Queen Anne and Queen Caroline Pearls were also displayed.

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The Queen Mother’s 1923 wedding gown, made of ivory chiffon with pearl bead embroidery, was shown as a part of a special Golden Jubilee exhibition at Kensington Palace in 2002.

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Queen Mary’s satin and brocade wedding gown, worn in 1893, was also displayed as a part of the 2002 exhibition, along with replica jewels. (Her wedding tiara, the Collingwood Fringe, no longer exists.)

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And Queen Victoria’s 1840 wedding dress has been shown several times. Here, it is displayed at Kensington Palace in March 2012.

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The Brits aren’t the only ones who have put their royal wedding dresses on view to the public. In October 2016, the Swedish royals inaugurated a special exhibition of wedding gowns worn by five royal brides, including Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, and Princess Sofia.

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In 2017, the wedding gown worn by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands in 2002 was put on display (with a replica of the Dutch Star Tiara) as part of the celebrations for King Willem-Alexander’s 50th birthday.

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Princess Charlene of Monaco’s wedding dress was on public display at the Musée Océanographique de Monaco less than two weeks after her wedding in the summer of 2011.

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And, of course, there’s perhaps the most successful royal wedding dress exhibition of all: the display of the wedding gown (and the Spencer Tiara) worn by Diana, Princess of Wales. The extensive tours of the exhibition meant that many of us around the world (including me!) got to see the dress and tiara in person.

Are you planning on seeing Meghan’s wedding dress in Windsor or Edinburgh? How many royal wedding dresses have you seen in person?

Princess Birgitta’s Pearl Circle Tiara

09.01.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

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The Swedish royal vaults are packed with major sparklers, but one branch of the family still owns a smaller tiara with royal origins: the Pearl Circle Tiara that once belonged to Princess Birgitta.

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Princess Birgitta is the second of the four famed Haga Princesses, elder sisters of King Carl XVI Gustaf. In 1960, she announced her engagement to a German prince, Johann Georg of Hohenzollern. As a wedding present, King Gustaf VI Adolf (her grandfather) and Queen Louise presented her with a new tiara.

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The diadem features seven pearl circles, connected with horizontal pearl-set sections, with pearl and diamond flowers in their centers. Additional diamond flowers are also interspersed between the pearl circles. The tiara is very much of its time, made for the princess by Carlman.

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The pearl circles of the tiara form a sort of modern echo of the pearl-ringed cameos on the Cameo Tiara, the bridal diadem that Birgitta wore for her civil wedding in Stockholm in 1961.

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Birgitta has lived in Spain for decades, where she has few opportunities to use her tiara, and it has been worn more frequently in recent years by other family members. Her daughter, Désirée, wore the tiara for her first wedding in 1990. The tiara was also worn by Uta König at her wedding to Birgitta’s younger son, Hubertus, in 2000. At some point, Birgitta reportedly decided to pass the piece along to Désirée for good, and she continues to wear it today. Above, she dons the tiara for the wedding of her cousin, Princess Madeleine of Sweden, in 2013.

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Désirée also made another fairly recent public appearance in the tiara, wearing the sparkler for the wedding of Prince Carl Philip in 2015. On that occasion, she paired the tiara with a pearl, diamond, and sapphire necklace.

The Swedish Tiarapedia Is Here!

08.27.2018 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Leuchtenberg Sapphire Tiara (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

My encyclopedic journey through the world of royal tiaras continues this week in Sweden, as I’ve compiled the Swedish portion of a favorite part of this website, The Tiarapedia!

The Cameo Tiara (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

The Tiarapedia, which originally launched back in 2008, is an attempt to provide a single, central location with all of the provenance, ownership, and wearer information for the tiaras worn by our favorite royals. Today, you can officially enjoy the section on the tiaras worn by the women of the Bernadotte family.