Queen Elizabeth II’s Dazzling Rubies and Diamonds for a Danish State Visit

In the 1970s, Queen Elizabeth II added a major new tiara to her collection. As our survey of her fashion and jewelry through the decades continues today, we look at one of her first big appearances in the ruby and diamond tiara, during a state visit to Denmark in 1979.

In the spring of 1979, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip traveled to Copenhagen, where they were the guests of their cousin, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and her husband, Prince Henrik, during a state visit. Elizabeth, Philip, and Margrethe were and are all descendants of two of the more prolific monarchs of the nineteenth century: King Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Queen Ingrid, whose mother was a British princess and who spent a great deal of time in London with her grandfather, the Duke of Connaught, took part in the visit as well. (She’s pictured at the table above on Philip’s left, wearing her famous ruby parure.)

The visit took place seven years after Margrethe’s accession to the throne. At the time, Elizabeth and Margrethe were two of the three female monarchs reigning in Europe. (The third, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, abdicated in favor of her daughter, Beatrix, less than a year later.)

Elizabeth sparkled during the visit in a Norman Hartnell evening gown made of silver lamé and embellished with beads. Originally made for the French state visit, Elizabeth later also wore it to the state opening of parliament in Canberra in 1974. (It’s also currently on display in the exhibition of the late Queen’s fashion at Buckingham Palace!)

For this Danish state banquet, Elizabeth wore the insignia of Denmark’s Order of the Elephant with the dress, as well as the Royal Family Orders of King George V and King George VI.

She accessorized with ruby and diamond jewels, echoing the national colors of Denmark. Her tiara, the Burmese Ruby, was made at her direction by Garrard six years earlier using diamonds from a dismantled Cartier tiara and rubies that were a wedding gift from the colonial government of Burma. She also wore the Baring Ruby Necklace, which she acquired in the 1960s, her diamond and ruby bracelet composed of oblong plaques, and another of her personal commissions, the Ruby Floret Earrings.

Margrethe, meanwhile, wore a green gown with a dramatic neckline for the banquet, paired with the tiara, necklace, earrings, and devant de corsage from the Danish Emerald Parure. The suite is part of the crown jewel collection, and its present form dates to 1840.