On Saturday, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands brought out a special trio of diamond stars with a long family history for a diplomatic luncheon in The Hague.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands hosted a luncheon at Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague on Saturday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. The weekend visit, per the royal website, focused “on deepening bilateral relations between the two countries and the signing of a strategic partnership to that end.”
For the luncheon, Máxima brought out an Elie Saab jumpsuit from her closet. We recently saw her wear it with diamond and kunzite jewelry at the Appeltje van Oranje awards presentation in October, but this time, she opted for an all-diamond jewelry look.
With a favorite pair of earrings from the vaults, which feature floralesque cluster studs and diamond-set strings with lozenge and scroll designs, she wore a pair of substantial pear-shaped diamond drops, which also come from the family collection.
On the waistband of her jumpsuit, Máxima added an extra bit of unexpected sparkle: three of the diamond stars from the family vaults.
These three diamond stars are part of a nineteenth-century collection that first belonged to Queen Emma of the Netherlands, wife of King Willem III and mother of Queen Wilhelmina. The set includes one large star with twelve points and several smaller stars with ten points. Máxima chose the large star and two of the smaller stars to adorn her outfit for the luncheon.
At one point, these diamond stars were frequently worn atop Queen Emma’s Diamond Tiara. Emma’s daughter, Queen Wilhelmina, wears this setting of the tiara in the portrait above, which dates to 1937. The tiara is still worn today, and so are the stars, but not together.
Wilhelmina’s daughter and successor, Queen Juliana, sometimes wore the same set of stars scattered in her hair in lieu of a tiara for gala occasions. Above, she wears them as hair ornaments at the Austrian Embassy in 1961.
The Dutch vaults also include a second set of diamond stars. These all have ten points, and they feature sharper, less open settings. Five of these stars were placed on the festoon base of the Pearl Button Tiara to create Máxima’s own bridal diadem in 2002.
In the years since, the starry setting of the tiara has been worn by other members of the family as well. Here’s Princess Beatrix wearing the tiara for the Diplomatic Reception in Amsterdam in 2015.
Princess Amalia has worn the tiara on more than one occasion as well. This picture comes from the Portuguese state banquet in December 2024.
Queen Máxima has also paired together the diamond star tiara and the stars-on-the-waist moves on at least one previous occasion. Here, for the Israeli state banquet in 2013, she wears the star tiara, plus three of the stars from the other collection pinned on the waist of her gala gown.
And speaking of a different kind of star, don’t forget that the free Wednesday edition of Hidden Gems will be dropping in subscribers’ inboxes in a few hours’ time. I’ll be featuring several interesting jewelry stories, including a second appearance of Dame Elizabeth Taylor’s opal suite on Taylor Swift this weekend. See you there!
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