Princess Margriet of the Netherlands stunned in New York last week where she wore a simple but striking family tiara at a gala.
Princess Margriet and her husband, Professor Pieter van Vollenhoven, attended the NAF Ball on 14 November, an annual event hosted by the Netherlands-America Foundation. Margriet is the sister of Queen Beatrix and the aunt of King Willem-Alexander.
She sparkled in the Dutch Diamond Bandeau Tiara, a piece that has been in the Dutch Royal Family for almost a century and a half.
The Dutch Diamond Bandeau Tiara was originally a necklace. The Dutch people gave the necklace of thirty-four large diamonds to Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont as a wedding gift when she married King William III in 1879.
Queen Emma regularly wore the diamond necklace throughout her life. Her daughter, the reigning Queen Wilhemina, chose to update the piece, though.
Wilhelmina had twenty-seven of the thirty-four diamonds made into a bandeau tiara in 1937.
Queen Wilhemina only wore the updated tiara once before her death in 1962, but her daughter, Queen Juliana, favoured the bandeau tiara.
Juliana chose to put many of the Dutch royal jewels into a trust, including this tiara. The trust guaranteed that all of the pieces would stay together in the family.
Queen Beatrix frequently wore this tiara during her reign, and Queen Maxima has also chosen it several times.
Princess Margriet is not Beatrix’s only sister to wear the Dutch Diamond Bandeau Tiara, though. Princess Christina was also photographed wearing the diadem.
