Let’s all jump in the Tiara Time Machine again today and head to 1996, when the glamorous Princess Caroline of Monaco brought out her grandmother’s jewels for a special celebration in Sweden.
On April 30, 1996, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden celebrated his 50th birthday with a glittering gala banquet at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Royals from across Europe and beyond were invited to join in the festivities. The tiny principality of Monaco was represented by Prince Rainier III’s eldest children, Princess Caroline and Prince Albert.
Here’s Caroline arriving for the dinner. She was greeted by the King and Queen, who wore full orders and decorations for the white-tie dinner. Both the Swedish royals wore the insignia of the Order of the Seraphim, and Silvia also added her husband’s Royal Family Order, a new badge celebrating the milestone birthday, and special jewels (the Connaught Diamond Tiara with the family’s Russian Pink Topazes).
Princess Caroline, who had just turned 39, wore a glamorous dark taupe evening gown with silver embroidery for the occasion. She wore the sash and star of Monaco’s Order of Saint Charles, plus the new commemorative ribbon and medal given to those who attended these royal birthday celebrations. (That also includes the two men behind her: the Prince of Asturias, now King Felipe VI of Spain, and Prince Ali bin Hussein, a younger brother of the present King of Jordan.)
The jewels she wore—tiara, earrings, and necklace—come from the collection of her late grandmother, Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois. Charlotte ordered the ornate diamond and pearl drop tiara from Cartier in 1949, the year her only son, Rainier III, became Monaco’s sovereign prince. (Charlotte had renounced her right to the throne in favor of Rainier several years before his accession.) Today, the tiara belongs to the family collection.
The diamond drop earrings and the diamond fringe necklace also come from Charlotte’s jewelry collection. Caroline has often worn the jewels together as a sort of married diamond-and-pearl parure, even though each piece has a distinctive design style. The necklace is typical of the fringes popularized by the Romanovs in the nineteenth century, while the earrings resemble pieces made during the Art Deco era of the 1920s and 1930s.
Before I go today, a quick reminder that the free-to-all Wednesday edition of Hidden Gems will be arriving in subscribers’ inboxes later this morning. We’re chatting about a handful of recent jewelry moments, including another outing for the sapphire and diamond butterfly earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales. See you there!
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