Wednesday 16 June 2010

Royal jewels: The Swedish sunray tiara

As the name “stråldiademet” (“the [sun]ray tiara”) indicates, this is a diamond fringe tiara. It consists of 47 rays and unlike a traditional kokoshnik it is considerably taller in front than on the sides.
It was a wedding present from Grand Duke Friedrich I and Grand Duchess Luise of Baden to their only daughter Victoria on the occasion of her wedding to Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden and Norway in 1881.
Victoria wore it as a necklace at her wedding and later also wore it as a corsage piece. She left it to King Gustaf V’s and Queen Victoria’s Foundation, one of the two family foundations of jewellery available to the ladies of the Swedish royal families.
It was Queen Victoria’s wish that this tiara should primarily be worn by the Crown Princess and since her coming of age in 1995 it has been a favourite of Crown Princess Victoria, who now seems to have the exclusive use of it (thus it might also be another good choice for a bridal tiara).
In recent decades it has also been worn by Princess Lilian, Princess Christina and Queen Silvia – the latter wore it for instance for a state visit to Canada in 1988 and during a visit to the previous pope in 1989.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Mr Trond Norén Isaksen, I would like to contact you, if possible, today or early tomorrow for a story we are doing at a prestigious Spanish magazine, my email is jil210@gmail.com, many thanks in advance

    ReplyDelete

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