Queen Mary Debuts Historic Sapphire Tiara at Banquet
Queen Mary of Denmark wore Queen Alexandrine's sapphire tiara for the first time at the Vietnamese state banquet on Monday evening, as reported by Royal Central. The outing gave the public its first full view of the reworked jewel. It can now be worn as a tiara, as a necklace or as a brooch.
The Danish Royal Court stated that the Queen collaborated with jewellery designers Diana Holstein and Hanan Emquies to give the sapphire jewel "a new, fully reversible design." Reversible, in jewellery terms, means the piece can be taken apart and refitted without changing the stones themselves. That careful refit is what lets one historic object work in three different ways.
The story behind the stones stretches back to 1898. The sapphires and diamonds were a wedding gift to Queen Alexandrine from Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia upon Alexandrine's marriage. Alexandrine later became queen consort of Denmark, the wife of the reigning king, in 1912. The loose jewels were made into a tiara, the jewelled headband worn by royal women for formal evening occasions.
In 1933, Alexandrine gave the tiara to Princess Caroline-Mathilde on her marriage to Prince Knud. Caroline-Mathilde had it modified in the 1960s and wore the altered version for the rest of her life. On her death in 1972, she bequeathed it to her younger son, Count Christian.
Count Christian then gifted it to his wife, Countess Anne, for her 50th birthday. Countess Anne wore it until her death in 2014. Her daughters inherited it jointly and sold it at auction in 2018, taking it outside the family for the first time in decades.
After the sale, the tiara did not disappear. It was displayed at the Amalienborg Palace Museum on loan from a private owner, where visitors could see it up close. The Danish Royal Collection, the body that holds and cares for the historic royal jewels, acquired it in 2024.
What makes this stand out is the round trip. A wedding present from a Russian emperor travelled through a Danish queen, a princess, a countess and an auction house. It sat in a museum case. Then it went to the designer's bench.
For fans watching royal dressing, this means variety. One night the sapphires can frame the face as a tiara. Another night the same stones can sit at the throat as a necklace or lift an evening gown as a brooch. It is old stones with new options.
