All the jewels at Sweden’s Nobel celebrations

The annual Nobel Prize ceremonies are one of the most anticipated yearly events for the Swedish Royal Family. It is a white-tie event, and the women in the family wear their best jewels. Given that the Swedish royals share their tiaras, necklaces, and more, it means that we can see many different pieces over the years. This year the ceremony took place on Saturday, 10 December. 

Since 1926, the Nobel Prizes have been awarded annually in Sweden (save for two years during the Second World War). Prizes in Literature, Medicine, Chemistry, Physics, and Economics are presented at the Stockholm Concert Hall, with the monarch giving the medal and handpainted certificate. Many members of the Royal Family attend this event. 

All of the members of the family at the ceremony on Saturday wore the Royal Family Order of King Carl XVI Gustaf. It is a portrait of the King framed in diamonds, oftentimes worn with the Order of the Seraphim (if the wearer holds it).

Queen Silvia chose a stunning amethyst set to mark the occasion. The Queen wore the Napoleonic Amethyst Parure Tiara, which originally belonged to Joséphine de Beauharnais, as a necklace, along with several other pieces. Through a series of marriages, the amethyst set ended up in the Swedish collection in the 1820s. It was worn as a necklace until Silvia had it set as a tiara in the 1970s. At the ceremony this year, she also wore the two bracelets from the parure as a necklace, the matching amethyst and diamond earrings, as well as the brooch. 

Crown Princess Victoria wore the Diamond Six Button Tiara, another Swedish tiara with a long lifespan but a new role as a tiara. The six buttons are diamond rosettes and were used in King Carl XIV Johan’s crown at his 1818 coronation. In 1909, the buttons were removed from the crown, and Queen Silvia rediscovered them in the 1970s. They were used to create the diamond tiara we see today. The Crown Princess paired the diamond tiara with a personal piece of jewellery, a blue and pink floral necklace, and the Vasa Earrings that date back to the mid-eighteenth century. 

Princess Sofia wore the Diamond Palmette Tiara to the Nobel Prize ceremony. The King and Queen gifted this to Sofia for her 2015 wedding to Prince Carl Philip, and she wears the piece often. It can be worn with several different jewels atop the palmettes; she wore blue topazes this year with matching topaz earrings. 

On Sunday, 12 December, The King and Queen hosted the prize winners for dinner, with many members of the Royal Family attending. 

Sofia wore her Diamond Palmette Tiara again for the dinner, though she wore it with pearls instead of the topazes.

Crown Princess Victoria chose to wear a different tiara for the dinner, reaching for the Boucheron Laurel Wreath Tiara. Princess Margaret of Connaught was given this tiara as a wedding gift in the early twentieth century; she wore it several times as a necklace. It was not seen in tiara form until her daughter-in-law, Princess Lillian, began wearing it. Lillian gifted the tiara to Victoria upon her death. It is a diamond tiara in the shape of a laurel wreath, one of the more unique pieces in the Swedish collections. She chose to wear the Bernadotte Emerald Necklace – a necklace of emeralds and diamonds initially worn as a belt and refitted as a necklace and emerald and diamond earrings. 

Queen Silvia reached for another queen’s tiara – Queen Sofia’s tiara, which was created for the future Queen of Sweden and Norway in the 1860s. It features scrolls and sunbursts that mimic the sun and the sea, with diamond festoons encircling the top.