Opals for October

Opals aren’t an overly popular stone for royals. We don’t see them glittering in many tiaras like other stones, but they do feature in other jewels. As Royal Central continues its jewel series, we take a look at some of the royal opals.

Denmark’s extended royal family has an opal tiara in its collection. It was originally the property of Princess Marie (1865-1909) and was passed down to her son, Prince Viggo. His wife then wore the diadem, but since they had on children, it later passed down to their nephew, Count Flemming of Rosenborg. The tiara had a floral type look with large opals at the end of each ‘petal’. Some of the large opals were removed, and the base of the tiara was made to be simpler later on. The repurposed tiara can be seen below on the Countess of Rosenborg in the back row by the late Prince Henrik.

In the Netherlands, Princess Beatrix privately owns some fire opal (meaning they have an orange or yellow tone) and diamond jewels that she sometimes loans to her daughter-in-law, Queen Máxima. The set consists of a pair of earrings, a bracelet, ring and brooch.

The Duchess of Sussex chose opals for her engagement photo session with Prince Harry back in November 2017. The earrings were by Maison Birks and, fitting with Meghan’s style, were a small statement piece. They are 18-carat gold with opals in the centre.

Australia’s national gemstone is the opal, and as such, Queen Elizabeth – as Queen of Australia – has a brooch dubbed the “Australian Opal Spray Brooch” in honour of the country’s gemstone. The opals in the brooch are set in gold.

There is one tiara that used to feature opals – albeit very small. Queen Elizabeth has the Oriental Circlet (originally created for Queen Victoria by her husband, Prince Albert) which features mostly diamonds. However, those diamonds were designed in places like a lotus, and in the centre were opals. As the years went by, the opals were removed and replaced with the rubies we see, occasionally, today.