Queen Mary gives 1898 sapphire jewel new life at Vietnam state banquet
Queen Mary of Denmark has brought a 127-year-old sapphire jewel back into royal life as a tiara that can also be worn as a necklace or brooch.
The Queen wore the reworked piece for the first time on 19 October 2026. The occasion was the state banquet at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen during the President of Vietnam's state visit to Denmark, Hello! reported.
The jewel began as a wedding present. It was given to Princess Alexandrine, later Queen Alexandrine, in 1898. More than a century later, the Danish Royal Collection, the body that cares for Denmark's crown jewels and royal jewellery, bought it back from a private owner in 2024.
Queen Mary then helped to reimagine it. She worked in close collaboration with the Royal Collection and jewellery designers Diana Holstein and Hanan Emquies on a new, fully reversible design.
Reversible here means practical. The jewel can be turned and refastened to be worn three ways: as a tiara for formal banquets, as a necklace, or as a brooch. That flexibility is rare in historic pieces, which were often fixed in one form.
This is not the first time Queen Mary has helped create a tiara from the vaults. She debuted a new bandeau tiara, a low band-style tiara worn close to the head, in December 2024, Tatler reported.
She designed that bandeau in 2024 with experts from the Danish Royal Collection, according to People. It was crafted from an unused rose-cut diamond girdle, a belt of old-cut stones, held in the Danish crown jewels. That diamond set had originally been designed for Queen Caroline Amalie.
What makes this stand out is the pattern. Rather than commissioning entirely new jewels, Queen Mary is reusing historic stones and settings and shaping how they are worn next.
