A Sapphire and Diamond State Visit Tiara for the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

The Spaniards weren’t the only royals hosting a grand state banquet on Tuesday: the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg feted their Finnish counterparts with a gala dinner, with a sparkling family tiara taking center stage.

Almost exactly a year after his sparkling accession dinner, Grand Duke Guillaume V and Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Luxembourg hosted a state banquet in honor of the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, and his wife, Suzanne Innes-Stubb.

The white-tie banquet brought out gala ensembles and decorations at the Grand Ducal Palace. Grand Duke Guillaume and Grand Duchess Stéphanie received the Order of the White Rose of Finland during the visit, with the Grand Duke wearing the collar and star and the Grand Duchess adding the order’s sash and star to her dress. Ms. Innes-Stub wore the star and ribbon badge of the order, while President Stubb wore the order’s star with his newly-received Luxembourgish decoration: the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau.

For the occasion, Grand Duchess Stéphanie wore a new gala gown. The long red dress comes from the brand Safiyaa, which has provided gala ensembles to numerous European royal ladies in recent years. The company calls this particular shade of red “azalea.”

Stéphanie matched her jewelry to her new order sash, wearing several pieces of family jewelry set with diamonds and sapphires. Her tiara, which features seven pear-shaped diamond toppers, is a convertible necklace, and her earrings feature sapphires set in diamond clusters.

The tiara has been in the family collection since the reign of Grand Duke Guillaume’s grandparents, Grand Duke Jean and Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte. Here, Joséphine-Charlotte wears the jewel on its tiara frame during an official visit to Germany in 1977, along with the sapphire and diamond earrings.

Joséphine-Charlotte also wore the tiara as a necklace, both with and without its pendants. (She went for the pendant-less version for an iconic occasion in 1981: the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.)

Grand Duchess Stéphanie has worn the earrings and the tiara several times, often together. She has worn the tiara both on and off its frame. Here, she wears the jewel as a necklace (with the Chaumet Choker Tiara) during the Dutch state visit to Luxembourg in 2018.

And here, in January 2020, she wears the jewel on its tiara frame for the annual New Year gala at the Grand Ducal Palace. On that occasion, she again wore the sapphire and diamond earrings, plus one of the family’s antique diamond rivière necklaces.

For Tuesday’s banquet, Stéphanie also wore two more pieces of heirloom family jewelry. On her right wrists, she stacked a pair of diamond bracelets that belonged to Grand Duke Guillaume’s great-grandmother, Grand Duchess Charlotte. One of the pair features a watch face. Stéphanie memorably wore the bracelets together a year ago during her husband’s inauguration ceremony.

Before I leave you today, a quick rundown of the content I’ll be sharing this weekend. On Saturday at Hidden Gems, my centenary-year exploration of important days in the life of Queen Elizabeth II arrives in the summer of 1982, when she weathered a shocking intrusion at Buckingham Palace. And on Sunday, my free weekly digest newsletter will arrive in subscribers’ email inboxes. See you there!