Queen Mary of Denmark was the unrivalled star of the first day of a State Visit to Latvia and she crowned her success with a tiara that has a very modern symbolic meaning.
Mary, who was accompanying her husband on this important trip, chose a diamond and ruby tiara that’s far from grand in stature but is heavy with story.
For the tiara in question was bought by Mary herself when she was still Crown Princess of Denmark. She acquired the gems at auction and is believed to have paid several thousand euros for them. However, their value has increased greatly since then as they’ve become part of a royal collection.
(Kongehuset ©️)
Her decision stamped her own personality on her life as a royal. Queen Mary had been presented with a parure of ruby and diamond gems just before her marriage to King Frederik in 2004. The bride, then Mary Donaldson, had no royal style jewels of her own – she was marrying into one of the oldest reigning dynasties in the world as a former business consultant, not a princess.
The jewels she received had once belonged to her groom’s grandmother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark. However, Denmark has fairly strict rules around its gems. Its most famous tiaras are reserved for the use of the current queen only. Around 2012, Mary decided to add her own gems to her collection and bought an antique Edwardian necklace at auction. She wore it publicly for the first time several years later and before long had done what its original designer intended for it – had a frame made so it could also be used as a tiara.
Since then, the diadem has become one of her favourite pieces. It’s a very pretty tiara, featuring delicate scroll designs dominated by diamonds but with a sprinkle of rubies and spinels, both known for their deep red shade. This was also symbolic, paying homage to the colours of the Danish flag.
On her husband’s accession as King of Denmark, on January 14 2024, Queen Mary acquired a new set of tiaras to wear as those gems reserved for majesties was suddenly at her disposal. She’s worn them for high profile events since and made particular use of a stunning emerald tiara that is seen as one of the most symbolic in the collection and which is so important to Denmark that it can never leave the country.
The Danish queen has also dug into the royal archives since King Frederik took the throne and debuted two new tiaras. One is a gold diadem set with stones that were found during a 19th century royal visit to Pompeii and Vesuvius.
Queen Mary debuted an unusual tiara in March this year
Queen Caroline Amalie, wife of King Christian VIII, had the unique gold tiara created sometime around 1820. The tiara is set with varied oval-shaped gems, including a striking large red stone in the centre. The stones give the tiara a particularly personal touch as she collected them while the couple was visiting Rome and Pompeii from 1819 to 1821.
At the end of 2024, Queen Mary revealed she had been working with royal jewellers to make a new tiara for the Danish royal collection. She used gems from a set known as the rose stone collection which had been worn as a necklace. She had the large round diamonds made into a bandeau style tiara which bears some similarities to smaller diadems in other royal collections including that of the Netherlands.
However, her latest appearance shows the importance she still places on a tiara that she found at auction and bought to give herself her own piece of royal jewellery. The diamond and ruby diadem is a piece filled with very modern royal symbolism.
