Tiara, necklace or brooch: Queen Mary wears Alexandrine's sapphire jewel in a new form
At the state banquet for Vietnam's president, Denmark's queen debuted an 1898 jewel reworked with two designers – it can now be worn in three ways.
Archive image · Photo: FFswe / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Denmark's Queen Mary wore a historic sapphire jewel in a new form at the state banquet at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen on 19 October. The occasion was the state visit of Vietnamese President Tô Lâm and his wife, Ngô Phương Ly. The diamond and sapphire bandeau was a wedding gift in 1898 to the future Queen Alexandrine, who married the future King Christian X. According to The Court Jeweller, it is generally said to have come from her Russian cousins, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra – this is not confirmed.
The jewel has a chequered history: in 2018, descendants sold it at the auction house Bruun Rasmussen for two million kroner. In 2024, the Royal Collection acquired the piece from a private owner. Working with jewellery designers Diana Holstein and Hanan Emquies, Mary has now given it a fully reversible design: it can be worn as a tiara, a necklace or a brooch. According to the royal house, the design "respects the piece's history and special tradition and makes it usable today".
Mary paired the jewel with a midnight-blue ensemble featuring a top by Jesper Høvring. For Crown Prince Christian it was his first state banquet, four days after his 21st birthday. Mary had previously worked with the Royal Collection on the so-called Rose Stone Diadem, which she first wore in December 2024.