We saw an exciting tiara moment happen in Norway last week: the reemergence of an heirloom diamond jewel with generations of shared British and Norwegian royal history.
On Thursday, King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway hosted a white-tie dinner for Norway’s bishops at the Royal Palace in Oslo. They were joined by Crown Prince Haakon at the dinner, which included a special tradition: the singing of “Everyone turns their eyes to you” by the bishops before the meal was served. You can hear a snippet from the moment on the official Instagram account of the Norwegian court.
The royals wore full gala dress for the dinner, including orders and decorations. Here’s King Harald wearing his medals, as well as the sash and star of the Order of St. Olav and the neck badge and star of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.
Queen Sonja wore bright Norwegian red for the occasion. Her dress perfectly matched the sash of the Order of St. Olav and the ribbon of the King’s Royal Family Order. Her jewels for the occasion were all diamonds, including a special appearance from the Maltese Cross Tiara.
The unusual tiara highlights the family ties between the Norwegian royal family and their British royal ancestors. The jewel was made from a diamond circlet that originally belonged to Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, King Harald’s great-grandmother.
Queen Alexandra ordered the regal circlet from Carrington for her personal use after the death of King Edward VII, after passing the George IV Diamond Diadem to her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary. Above, she wears the circlet (and Queen Victoria’s small diamond crown) during the celebrations of the wedding of her granddaughter, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, and her nephew, Prince Arthur of Connaught, in 1913. Originally, the circlet’s central cross housed the marquise-cut Cullinan VI Diamond.
When Alexandra died in November 1925, she left notes in her jewelry inventory indicating the recipient of each of her most important pieces. The regal circlet went to her youngest daughter, Queen Maud of Norway. The circlet and the crosses headed to Oslo. By that time, Alexandra had already removed the Cullinan VI and circlet’s fleur-de-lis elements. Per Vincent Meylan, one of those fleur-de-lis elements, described as a diamond brooch, was sold at Christie’s by the Dowager Lady Glenarthur in 1937.
When Queen Maud’s jewels were divided after her death, the circlet was inherited by her grandson, the present King. His wife, Queen Sonja, has been wearing the jewel since she was Norway’s crown princess. The piece has been adjusted and is no longer a proper circlet, and it’s usually described as a tiara. Sonja has worn it in various configurations. Above, in 1985, she wears the base of the piece alone as a bandeau-style tiara.
Princess Märtha Louise has also worn the bandeau setting of the jewel. The photograph above, showing her wearing the tiara, was taken during the King and Queen of Sweden’s state visit to Norway in 1993.
Queen Sonja often wears the jewel’s Maltese cross ornaments on the base, and she’s also worn them separately on a slender tiara frame. You can see that second frame peeking out in this picture, which was taken during a state visit from the President of Iceland in 1997.
Trond Norén Isaksen reminds us that we most recently saw Queen Sonja wear the tiara in public in 2011, when she traveled with King Harald to Slovenia for a state visit. Above, she wears three of the crosses set on the front of the circlet in a tiara-style arrangement for the state dinner at Brdo Castle.
Queen Sonja wore the same setting for last week’s dinner at the Royal Palace. On both occasions, she also used a fourth cross from the diadem as a brooch to secure her order sash. She added more diamond sparkle on Thursday with gorgeous diamond pendant earrings, which also come from Queen Alexandra’s collection, and a pair of diamond necklaces. We saw her wear the necklaces and earrings recently during the official visit from the President of France.
Perhaps the British royal matriarch has been on the family’s mind recently, as the 100th anniversary of her death was commemorated at the end of November. Maybe thinking about Queen Alexandra motivated Queen Sonja to bring the tiara out of the vaults?
See you back here later today to marvel at the Swedish royal sparkle worn for the Nobels!
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