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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

The Royal Jewel Questionnaire: Castleholic’s Sydney (Part 1)

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It really ’tis the season for new features here at the Court Jeweller! Today, we’re featuring something I’ve been thinking about for a long time: the Royal Jewel Questionnaire, a post in which I get to make my friends answer incredibly tough questions about their favorite royal jewels.

Today’s questionnaire comes courtesy Sydney, a blogger you’ll be very familiar with if you read Luxarazzi (one of the best sources out there about the royal families of Luxembourg and Liechtenstein). Sydney also runs a great blog called Confessions of a Castleholic, which chronicles her visits to various schlosses, chateaux, and palaces.

I’m guest posting about my favorite castles over at Castleholic today, so when you’re done reading through part one of Sydney’s questionnaire, head over there and check it out! And stay tuned tomorrow here at the Court Jeweller for more of Sydney’s answers to the really tough royal jewel questions!

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QUESTION #1: What’s your favorite piece of jewelry from each of the current bejeweled European monarchies? (Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom)



When it comes to royal jewellery, I’m a go big or go home kind of person so there are loads of tiaras coming your way. (Plus, I know too little of many collections to pick a favourite between the brooches, earrings or necklaces.)

Liechtenstein: Habsburg Fringe Tiara

Luxembourg: Empire Tiara
Netherlands: A tie between the Sapphire Tiara and the Diamond Bandeau

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QUESTION #2: The grand ducal family of Luxembourg has an immense collection of jewelry, but if you could add one piece to their vaults, what would it be?

Definitely something with rubies in it; it’s too bad they sold the rubies owned by Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte a few years ago and Princess Claire’s new ones don’t really do it for me, at least not in the tiara department. As I feel they also lack medium-to-large-sized tiaras, I think I would go for something like the Duchess of Angoulême’s Ruby Tiara.

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QUESTION #3: You’re a guest at a glittering state banquet. You need to wear a tiara, a necklace, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, and a brooch to secure your order sash. You can choose items from any royal collection. Which ones do you select? (Bonus points for choosing your chivalric order!)

The Diamond Vine Leaves Tiara from Luxembourg; the Vasa Earrings from Sweden; the Diamond Necklace worn by Queen Mathilde for the wedding celebrations in Luxembourg…

…Princess Benedikte’s Floral Brooch (which I believe comes from her tiara) as well as the Swedish Diamond Bow Brooch on my back to properly fix my sash…

…and the Bernadotte Diamond Bracelet – having just chosen all these, I didn’t realise before how big my weakness for the Bernadotte vaults was! Considering there is so much Swedish in here, I think it’s only natural to go for the Order of Seraphim.

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QUESTION #4: I strongly believe that every queen should have at least five tiaras at her disposal. If you could assemble your ultimate collection of five royal tiaras, which ones would you pick?

Considering that I have mentioned so many all-diamond tiaras already, I’ll go for my collection of ultimate colourful tiaras instead (because I believe a queen should have one tiara of each of the following stones at least): The Hesse Aquamarine Tiara, the Leuchtenberg Sapphire Tiara, Queen Mary’s Amethyst Tiara, the Duchess of Angoulême’s Ruby as well as her Emerald Tiara. She really had the best taste in jewels!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Questionnaire tomorrow!

A Closer Look at Kate in the Lover’s Knot Tiara

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Preview footage of a new documentary commissioned for Queen Elizabeth II’s upcoming 90th birthday was released yesterday, including the above image of the Duchess of Cambridge wearing the Lover’s Knot Tiara at last December’s diplomatic reception. Finally, a glimpse of the full tiara on Kate!

This video, posted by Buckingham Palace on Twitter, shows not only Kate wearing the Lover’s Knot but also the Queen wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara. We almost never get images of the Queen’s jewels at the diplomatic reception!


Our Queen at 90 will air on ITV in Britain on Easter Sunday. You can see an excerpt of one of Kate’s interviews from the program above. Here’s hoping we get an even better look at her diplomatic reception jewels, including those bracelets! (In the meantime, you can stop by our post on the tiara’s history!)

Saturday Sparkler: Princess Margaretha’s Floral Tiara

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Princess Margaretha [source]

We’ve talked quite a bit around these parts about the jewels that belonged to a pair of royal sisters, Queen Astrid of Belgium and Crown Princess Martha of Norway. But did you know that there was actually a third princess in the family? Astrid and Martha’s elder sister, Princess Margaretha, is the wearer primarily associated with today’s diamond floral tiara.

Princess Marie of Denmark [source]

The sparkler actually goes back at least one generation further in royal history. It was owned by Prince Axel’s mother, Princess Marie of Denmark (born Princess Marie of Orleans). Some have suggested that its first owner was Marie’s mother-in-law, Queen Louise of Denmark, but to my knowledge, that claim has never been substantiated.

Princess Marie of Denmark (and friend) [source]

Marie wore the tiara with a gorgeous diamond necklace in a series of portraits, including the image above, which is one of my very favorite royal portraits of all time. That dog! Look at that collar! Marie was free-spirited and Bohemian (as much as a princess could be, anyway), and this portrait really encapsulates her wit.

When Marie died in 1909, the floral tiara faded from sight for several years. It reappeared in 1919, when her second son, Prince Axel, married Princess Margaretha of Sweden. Margaretha was the eldest of the four children of Prince Carl of Sweden and his Danish-born wife, Princess Ingeborg. After her wedding, Margaretha began wearing the floral tiara, placing it low across her brow in 1920s-era style.

Princess Margaretha’s extensive family connections to the royals of Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Norway meant that she had plenty of opportunities to wear tiaras during her lifetime. She wore the sparkler at the grand royal wedding of her sister, Queen Astrid, in 1926. Above, she also wears the tiara during the Nobel Prize festivities in Stockholm in 1968.

And here, she wears the tiara at an event also attended by her (very pregnant) niece-in-law, Crown Princess Sonja of Norway (who is wearing the grand emerald parure that belonged to Margaretha’s mother). When she died in 1977, Margaretha left the tiara to her elder son, Prince Georg. He did not have (biological) children, and some royal writers noted that the tiara was passed along to the family of his brother, Count Flemming of Rosenborg. Flemming’s (late) wife, Countess Ruth, told royal historian Trond Noren Isaksen that Georg actually sold the tiara. What happened to it after the sale isn’t known. Was it broken up? Is it still hanging around in a private collection today? Yet another tiara mystery…