The royal family in Denmark marked a special milestone this weekend, bringing out some fascinating pieces of heirloom jewelry for the confirmation of Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.
Denmark’s fifteen-year-old royal twins, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, were confirmed in the chapel of Fredensborg Palace on Saturday. Their parents, King Frederik X and Queen Mary, were in attendance, as were their elder siblings, Crown Prince Christian and Princess Isabella, and their grandmother, Queen Margrethe.
Also present were all twelve of the twins’ godparents. Prince Vincent was supported by the King of Spain; Queen Mary’s brother, John Stuart Donaldson; King Frederik’s cousin, the Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, and the Prince’s brother-in-law, Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille; and friends of Queen Mary, Caroline Heering and Baroness Helle Reedtz-Thott. On hand to support Princess Josephine were her aunts, Princess Marie of Denmark and Patricia Bailey, as well as the Duke of Castro, Count Bendt Wedell, Birgitte Handwerk, and Josephine Rechner, four friends of her parents.
The event was a poignant one for the entire family, as Queen Mary’s father, John Dalgleish Donaldson, passed away a week before the confirmation service. Mary’s three siblings, John, Patricia, and Jane, were all in attendance for the celebration. When King Felipe of Spain arrived, a correspondent for Billed-Bladet overheard him saying, “I am so sorry for your loss,” as he kissed Mary’s hand.
Ahead of the service, the twins posed for official portraits in the Chancellery House, the royal family’s residence on the palace grounds. Vincent was elegantly dressed in a dark blue pinstripe suit, while Josephine wore a white blouse and skirt for the occasion.
Josephine is a teen who clearly loves to accessorize, so it came as no surprise that she wore several jewelry pieces for the service. UFO No More tells us that her modern pearl earrings come from the Danish jewelry designer Julie Sandlau. She also wore a necklace combining round white pearls, seed pearls, and a single golden bead, plus a necklace with a gold Dagmar Cross pendant.
Josephine also wore several bracelets and rings, including a large gold Cenius & Bach ring borrowed from her mother’s jewelry box. But one particular bracelet, the turquoise, gold, and diamond bangle worn on her right wrist, has significant royal provenance.
The bracelet, per Billed-Bladet and Trond Norén Isaksen, was the jewelry present given to Josephine by her grandmother, Queen Margrethe, when she was baptized in 2011. The bangle has immense royal history. The jewel was given to Josephine’s great-grandmother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark, as a wedding present in 1935 by her great-aunt, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. Ingrid gave the bracelet to her eldest daughter, Margrethe, in the 1960s, and now it resides in Josephine’s personal collection.
Princess Louise did not attend Ingrid’s civil wedding in Stockholm or the religious ceremony that followed in Copenhagen, but she did have a good opportunity to give Ingrid a wedding gift in person. In the late summer of 1935, Ingrid and Frederik visited England as part of their extended honeymoon. There, her grandfather, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, hosted them at his country home, Bagshot Park. Among the visitors who was also present during the trip was the Duke’s sister, the Duchess of Argyll. Along with their younger sister, Princess Beatrice, Arthur and Louise were the only surviving children of Queen Victoria at the time.
Princess Josephine also wore another bracelet with links to her British royal heritage. On her left wrist, you’ll spot the slender gold bangle worn by all of the female descendants of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught.
The rest of the royal family also posed for portraits with the twins on their confirmation day. Here, they’re pictured with their parents, King Frederik and Queen Mary, in the palace’s Garden Hall.
Queen Mary wore navy blue for the service, paired with large diamond earrings and one of the most beautiful brooches in the Danish royal collection. The Flood Brooch, as it is called, was made for Marie of Hesse-Kassel, the wife (and cousin) of King Frederik VI of Denmark in the 1840s. Their younger daughter, Princess Vilhelmine Marie, donated it to a charitable fund for flood victims in 1872.
The sapphire and diamond jewel was later reacquired by Queen Louise, the wife of King Christian IX, and has been in the family collection ever since. Today it is part of the Danish Royal Property Trust.
The twins’ elder siblings, Crown Prince Christian and Princess Isabella, also posed for playful portraits in the Garden Hall, including this charming black-and-white picture.
Princess Isabella wore forest green for her younger brother and sister’s confirmation. Her accessories included delicate diamond cluster earrings and another special royal heirloom jewel: Queen Alexandrine’s Pink Pearl Drop Brooch.
The brooch was Isabella’s christening gift from her grandmother, Queen Margrethe, in 2007. The triangular jewel features a central white pearl and a pink conch pearl drop. Queen Alexandrine gave the pendant to Margrethe on her baptism in 1940, and Margrethe then passed it along to her first granddaughter. Isabella memorably wore it for her own confirmation service in 2022.
Queen Margrethe also posed with King Frederik and his family in the Garden Hall on the twins’ confirmation day. With a favorite blue dress and jacket, she wore her antique silver and blue enamel Fabergé earrings, plus the petite diamond and sapphire fleur-de-lis brooch that belonged to Queen Alexandrine. It’s a combination of jewels we’ve seen before, notably during her birthday celebrations three years ago.
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