The biggest tiara event of the year to date took place this evening in Stockholm, with a fabulous array of brilliant royal tiaras and jewels on display to celebrate the 80th birthday of the King of Sweden.
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who celebrates his 80th birthday today, hosted royal relatives and friends at a grand gala dinner at the Royal Palace in Stockholm tonight. He was accompanied by his wife of nearly 50 years, Queen Silvia, who wore a bright red ballgown for the occasion. Her decorations included the sash and star of the Order of the Seraphim and her husband’s Royal Family Order.
Queen Silvia also wore some of the grandest diamond pieces from the family collection: the Brazilian Tiara, which was inherited by Queen Josefina of Sweden from her sister, Empress Amélie of Brazil, with its coordinating earrings, necklace, and floral brooch.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, in a bold royal blue gown with a Grecian-inspired neckline, arrived with her husband, Prince Daniel, and the daughter, Princess Estelle. Victoria and Daniel wore the insignia of the Order of the Seraphim; Victoria also added her father’s Royal Family Order, and Daniel wore the neck badge of the Order of the Polar Star. Estelle was given the Seraphim by her grandfather on the day of her birth, but she didn’t wear it with her gown for the dinner.
Victoria also wore some truly excellent jewels with a long Swedish royal history. Her tiara, the Connaught Diamond Tiara, was one of the wedding presents given to her great-grandmother, Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden, in 1905. Victoria paired it with the gorgeous sapphire and diamond brooch and earrings from the Leuchtenberg Sapphire Parure.
The bracelet that Victoria wore on her right wrist also has a long royal history: it was one of the wedding presents given to Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont when she married Queen Victoria’s youngest son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, in 1882. The King’s mother, Princess Sibylla, was a granddaughter of Leopold and Helena.
And Princess Estelle, who is still a few years away from her first tiara, wore a lovely pair of earrings featuring pink gemstones surrounded by diamonds.
Princess Madeleine arrived in a shimmering evening gown covered with beads and sequins, paired with the insignia of the Order of the Seraphim and her father’s Royal Family Order.
Madeleine added even more sparkle with her jewelry, wearing the Modern Fringe Tiara, a gift from her parents that she also wore on her wedding day. She owns the tiara personally, but she borrowed the rest of her jewels, including the glamorous earrings and brooch from the family’s Russian pink topaz suite.
On her left wrist, Madeleine added another heirloom jewel: the antique diamond bracelet worn by generations of Swedish queens past, including Queen Lovisa and Queen Sofia. (See another royal consort, Queen Louise, wearing it here.)
Princess Sofia was elegant in an evening gown with an ombré pattern, transitioning from dark pink to white. She also wore the Seraphim sash and star and her father-in-law’s Royal Family Order.
With the ensemble, Sofia wore a mix of old and new jewels. Her tiara, a versatile diamond palmette design, was her wedding present from her parents-in-law in 2015. She has a whole collection of gemstone toppers to go with the tiara, and tonight she debuted a set of amethyst briolettes. She continued the theme by wearing the necklace, bracelet, and brooch from the family’s grand parure of Napoleonic-era amethyst jewels.
The King’s sister, Princess Christina, was also present for the banquet. Here, she arrives on the arm of Prince Wenzel, second in line to the throne of Liechtenstein. With her black, white, and gray evening gown, she wore her brother’s Royal Family Order and the Seraphim sash and star.
For the occasion, Christina wore the family’s Six Button Tiara, which is set with diamond rosettes that once adored the Swedish coronation crown. She also wore additional diamond and pearl jewels, as well as the golden King’s Medal.
The Norwegian royal family was represented at the banquet by King Harald V, Queen Sonja, and Crown Prince Haakon. Sonja wore a favorite lime-colored evening gown with the Seraphim sash and star, the star of the Order of St. Olav, and her husband’s Royal Family Order.
Appropriately, Sonja reached for a suite of jewelry with Swedish royal roots. She wore the grand diamond and emerald parure that came to Sweden with the Leuchtenbergs. The set was later owned by Princess Ingeborg of Sweden, who gave it to her daughter, Crown Princess Märtha of Norway. The jewels have been with the Norwegians ever since.
There were numerous members of the Danish royal family in attendance as well. King Frederik X and Queen Mary were accompanied by his mother, Queen Margrethe, and his aunt, Princess Benedikte. (Margrethe and Benedikte are first cousins of the King of Sweden.) Queen Mary wore a light purple gown with a floral pattern for the dinner, decorated with the Seraphim sash and star and her husband’s Royal Portrait Order.
Mary also gestured toward the Danish royal family’s deep Swedish links with her jewels. She placed a special Swedish diamond bracelet on a tiara frame for the event. The jewel was given as a wedding present to Queen Lovisa of Sweden by her parents-in-law, King Oscar I and Queen Josefina of Sweden, in 1850. It came to Copenhagen with her daughter, Queen Lovisa of Denmark. Queen Margrethe liked to wear the bracelet as a choker necklace, but this is the first time, I believe, that it’s been used as a tiara.
With the bracelet bandeau, Mary also wore additional pieces from the Danish Royal Property Trust: long diamond floral earrings that belonged to Hereditary Princess Caroline of Denmark and a square diamond brooch from the collection of Queen Josefina of Sweden.
Queen Margrethe of Denmark, escorted here by King Philippe of the Belgians, wore a dark pink evening gown with a lace bodice for the dinner, with the sash and star of the Order of the Seraphim, the star of the Order of the Elephant, the badge of the Order of the Dannebrog, and her father’s Royal Portrait Order.
Margrethe also paid tribute to her Swedish royal ancestors, wearing the Baden Palmette Tiara, which she inherited from her mother, the Swedish-born Queen Ingrid of Denmark. She also wore pearl drop earrings, a five-row pearl necklace, and a diamond and pearl bar brooch that she received from her British royal aunt, Lady Patricia Ramsay.
Margrethe’s sister, Princess Benedikte, processed into the banquet with the Speaker of the Riksdag, Andreas Norlén. Benedikte wore a favorite sea-green evening gown with the insignia of the Order of the Polar Star, the badge of the Order of the Dannebrog, and her father’s Royal Portrait Order.
Benedikte also wore an interesting mix of personal jewels. The Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Fringe Tiara is a legacy from her late husband, Prince Richard, who was raised in Sweden. She paired it with elegant diamond and pearl drop earrings and a diamond necklace that belonged to her Danish royal grandmother, Queen Alexandrine. The floral brooch that she used to secure her order sash also belonged to Alexandrine. It can be worn as the centerpiece of a tiara, which Benedikte received to mark her eighteenth birthday.
The Belgian royal family has Swedish royal roots as well: King Philippe’s grandmother, Queen Astrid, was born a Swedish princess. Philippe was joined by his wife, Queen Mathilde, at the banquet. She wore a bright orange evening gown with the sash and star of the Order of the Polar Star.
Mathilde added a collection of personal diamond jewels to her outfit. Her diamond laurel wreath tiara was a wedding present from a group of Belgian aristocrats. She paired it with a y-shaped diamond necklace and a pair of earrings set with white and yellow diamonds. These are thought to have been a gift from King Philippe.
Another queen made a glittering tiara debut at the banquet: Queen Suthida, the wife of King Vajiralongkorn of Thailand. She wore a dazzling beaded silver gown with the yellow sash and diamond star of Thailand’s Order of the Royal House of Chakri.
Delightfully, Suthida appears to have worn the fabulous diamond fringe tiara that belonged to her late mother-in-law Queen Sirikit. Her jewels for the banquet also included a major pair of diamond earrings, a gorgeous diamond brooch, and a pair of diamond bangle bracelets, worn stacked together on her right wrist.
More Swedish royal cousins attended from the Netherlands: Grand Duke Guillaume V and Grand Duchess Stéphanie with Grand Duke Henri, who is a grandson of the Swedish-born Queen Astrid of Belgium. Stéphanie wore a light blue evening gown with the sash and star of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau.
Stéphanie’s jewels continued the light blue theme. She wore the tiara, earrings, and bracelet from the midcentury parure of aquamarine jewels that belonged to her husband’s grandmother, Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg.
The royal family of the Netherlands was represented by Princess Beatrix, the former sovereign and mother of the present monarch, King Willem-Alexander. She arrived for the banquet on the arm of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg. With her gold brocade jacket and skirt, she wore the grand collar of the Order of the Seraphim.
Her jewels were equally impressive: the enormous Dutch Diamond Bandeau, paired with diamond earrings and a diamond necklace.
The King and Queen of Spain dispatched his mother, Queen Sofia, to represent the family at the event. She arrived for the banquet on the arm of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, wearing a lovely pale blue evening gown with the sash and star of the Order of the Seraphim and the badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Sofia’s tiara, delightfully, was one that we haven’t seen worn in public for quite some time: the Mellerio Shell Tiara, an inheritance from a nineteenth-century Spanish princess, Infanta Isabel. She wore the tiara with a gorgeous suite of jewels set with diamonds and bright yellow gems. (Citrines? Yellow diamonds??)
Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein, processing into the dinner here on the arm of Leopold of Bavaria, wore a navy blue evening gown with the sash and star of the Order of Merit of the Principality of Liechtenstein. Her diamond tiara, the Habsburg Fringe Tiara, has a fascinating history that links to the family’s Austrian imperial ancestors.
From Romania, the daughter of the last King–Margareta, Custodian of the Crown of Romania–attended alongside her husband, Prince Radu. She wore a canary yellow evening gown with the insignia of the Order of Carol I.
Her diamond jewels included a special family tiara, the Romanian Greek Key Tiara. The tiara was originally a kokoshnik from the collection of Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia. She later sold it to her sister, Queen Marie of Romania, who gave it to her daughter-in-law, Queen Helen. It’s stayed with the family though all of the upheaval that followed. For this occasion, Margareta wore it with diamond earrings, a diamond necklace, and a diamond fleur-de-lis brooch.
Alexander, the last Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, and his wife, Katherine, were also on hand for the banquet. Katherine wore a light blue evening gown with the sash of the Order of St. Sava and the medal given to guests who attended the King of Sweden’s 70th birthday celebrations ten years ago. She also wore the same earrings she wore for the Te Deum service earlier in the day.
Alexander’s son, Philip, and daughter-in-law, Danica, were present for the banquet as well. Danica wore a mauve-colored evening gown with the sash and star of the Order of St. Sava.
She also wore emerald and diamond earrings and an interesting tiara, which appears to feature a modern floral design in silver-toned metal.
Kelly of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha wore a royal blue evening gown with the sash of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order. Her jewelry accessories were pieces from the diamond and turquoise parure that belonged to Duchess Victoria Adelaide, grandmother of the King of Sweden and great-grandmother of Kelly’s husband, Hubertus.
The King’s close friend, Leopold of Bavaria, attended the banquet with his wife, Ursula. She wore a dark blue gown with a beaded bodice for the occasion.
Her jewels for the banquet included a diamond scroll tiara, a pearl necklace, and diamond earrings.
This article takes the place of our usual Friday post here at The Court Jeweller. You’ll find me next at Hidden Gems on Saturday morning, when paid subscribers will enjoy a fascinating look at another important day in the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II: the birth of her first child, the future King Charles III.
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