Luxembourg’s Sapphire Art Deco Necklace Tiara: The Strangest Sapphire Tiara in Europe?

This week, all eyes are on the grand duchy of Luxembourg, where the reigning Grand Duke will hand over the throne to his heir on Friday. Today, we’ve got a look at a fascinating convertible tiara from the family’s jewelry collection—one that is as divisive as it is unusual.

The grand ducal vaults in Luxembourg are packed with numerous pieces of distinctive jewelry with midcentury designs, including jewels that date to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. These pieces reflect the influence of Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte, the Belgian princess who married Grand Duke Jean in 1953. Among the unusual pieces of jewelry in her personal collection was a convertible jewel that could be worn as a tiara, a necklace, or a series of brooches and pendants.

The jewel features an enormous cabochon sapphire in a square diamond setting as its centerpiece, with a pair of diamond and sapphire ornaments on either side. A climbing floral motif, set in diamonds, connects the three pieces. The jewel can also be separated into three individual elements, with the central element used alone as a brooch or pendant and the two side ornaments can worn as a pair of clip-style brooches.

Though the piece has most often been worn as a necklace over the years, it can also be placed on a simple frame and worn as a tiara. Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte wore it in its tiara setting for more than one official portrait taken in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the image above, she wears the Art Deco-style tiara with two more convertible pieces of jewelry: the Congo Diamond Necklace and her diamond and sapphire bracelet. Both of these can also be worn as bandeau-style tiaras.

Joséphine-Charlotte wore the Art Deco jewel as a necklace as well. In 1996, she wore the jewel in that setting for the 50th birthday celebrations for her cousin, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, in Stockholm. She paired the necklace with the Belgian Scroll Tiara, one of her wedding gifts, and the family’s diamond and sapphire earrings, and she used the central element of her sapphire and diamond bracelet as a brooch.

Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte passed away in 2005. Some of her jewelry was sold, while other pieces passed to her children. The sapphire and diamond necklace stayed with the main line of the grand ducal family. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa has worn it often as a necklace over the past two decades, though she has not attempted to wear the tiara setting of the piece. In this photograph, taken at the 60th birthday celebrations for the King of Sweden in 2006, she pairs the necklace with another convertible jewel, the Chaumet Choker Tiara.

We’ve seen Maria Teresa wear the necklace several times for gala events in recent years. Here, she pairs the necklace with a hot pink evening gown during the German president’s state visit to Luxembourg in the summer of 2023. She also wore the sapphire and diamond earrings on this occasion.

And in June 2024, she wore the necklace with a navy blue jumpsuit for the European Culture Awards at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg.

She made another appearance in the same jumpsuit with the necklace and more sapphire and diamond jewels back in March, posing in the ensemble for a set of official portraits released to mark her birthday. Delightfully, the high-quality images gave us an excellent view of the small details of the necklace, emphasizing the floral elements that balance the hard, geometric lines of the piece. And that cabochon sapphire—spectacular. The design of the jewel may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I can’t help but hope that the newly-minted Grand Duchess Stéphanie tries out the tiara setting of the piece sometime soon.