The dawn of jewelry fashion finds its roots in the era of Princess Alexandra of Denmark, later to become Queen Consort of England. Pioneering the trend of diverse jewelry collections, she set the stage for the advent of modular adornments reminiscent of modern styles. Following in Alexandra’s footsteps, women of her time adorned their necks with a plethora of gold chains adorned with pearls, enamel inserts, and miniature precious stones.
These collections of beads and inserts varied in accordance with the color of the attire, while the chains bore an array of miniature items, including even longettes. However, Queen Alexandra is even more renowned for her fondness for pearls, particularly pearl chokers that encircled her slender neck, her tiaras deserve a separate conversation.
While Alexandra often appears in official jewels in photographs, they reflect her remarkable ability to harmonize a multitude of necklaces, chokers, chains, and brooches. Alexandra was highly popular in the country and beloved by the British people. But let us turn to her adornments.
As a wedding gift, the groom presented Alexandra with a diamond peru from Gar and Company, comprising a tiara, necklace, earrings, and brooch. It was a fitting gift for the Princess of Wales and future Queen Consort of England. Large, perfectly shaped pearls surrounded by diamonds and pear-shaped pearls as pendants created an effect of lightness and lent the jewelry a special grace.
The gift delighted Princess Alexandra, who wore the necklace, brooch, and earrings from the peru on her wedding day. Instead of a tiara, the bride’s head was adorned with a floral wreath. Unfortunately, the tiara did not survive to this day. Often diamonds and gemstones from antique jewelry that has fallen out of fashion were used to create new fashionable jewelry.
The same fate apparently befell this tiara. The tiara could have been transformed and Alexandra wore it in various ways. Look, some of the links were removed over time. Queen Alexandra was renowned not only for her beauty and style, but also for her ability to dress luxuriously yet economically.
She did not squander money on fashionable attire, but often refashioned old ones, and the same applied to her jewelry. Marie of Tech sometimes adorned herself with her mother-in-law’s bridal peru. Later, her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Bose Lion, continued the tradition, appearing in Queen Alexandra’s necklace at ceremonial events.
Queen Elizabeth II often wore a brooch or earrings from her great-g grandandmother’s bridal Peru. Among Queen Alexandra’s most stunning jewels was the Dagmma necklace, a gift from her father, the King of Denmark, on her wedding day. Commissioned by her father to a renowned jeweler in Copenhagen, the Byzantine style necklace boasted 118 pearls and 2,000 diamonds.
Strands of pearls were connected by golden medallions, each adorned with a large diamond at its center. Two large pear-shaped pearls on either side were highly valued and displayed at the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851. The central pendant shaped like a cross was crafted using the Champl enamel technique and contained a fragment of silk from King Canut’s tomb.
It’s an extraordinary cross with its own history. Queen Dagmar was the beloved wife of King Valdemar the Victorious. When she passed away in 1212, she was buried with a similar enameled cross on her chest. Centuries later, her grave was opened and the cross was removed as a precious relic.
Since then, it became a tradition for Danish princesses to receive a copy of the cross as a talisman when they married. Queen Alexandra seldom wore the necklace, but when she did, it was paired with hundreds of other fabulous gems. When future King Edward IIIth and Queen Alexandra celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1888, the then Princess of Wales received a necklace with sapphires and diamonds as a gift.
The necklace featured eight cababashon cut sapphires surrounded by a scatter of diamonds. The sapphires were linked by twisted gold segments encased with diamonds. In the center between two segments was an element with larger vertically set diamonds as ornamentation. The necklace was a gift from Alexandre’s Danish brother-in-law, Emperor Alexander III of Russia and her sister, Empress Maria Fodorovna.
The following year, the Princess of Wales incorporated the sapphires into her amethyst tiara, another gift from the emperor. This same diadem adorned her daughter, Princess Louise of Wales on her wedding day to the Duke of F. After Queen Alexandra’s death in 1925, the sapphire necklace and amethyst tiara were inherited by Princess Louise, the Duchess of F.
She in turn bequeathed them in 1931 to her younger sister, Princess Moraud. Lady Moraud Carnegie was photographed wearing Queen Alexandra’s sapphire necklace only once at a charity ball in aid of Russian immigrant children in 1939 organized by Countess Maria Voronova Dashkova. After Lady Mor’s death in 1945, her jewels were auctioned off by trustees acting on behalf of her underage son Charles Carnegi, the future third Duke of F.
Queen Alexandra’s sapphire necklace was sold to a London dealer for £4,900. The next public appearance of the jewel took place in 1986 during an auction at Christy’s in New York. The current whereabouts of the jewelry are unknown. For her silver wedding anniversary in 1888, Princess of Wales Alexandra received a diamond butterfly brooch as a gift.
Newspapers of the time described it as consisting of the finest Brazilian diamonds. Three largest stones are set in the body. 29 large stones are arranged around the outer edge of the wings and another 185 diamonds are inside. The eyes are made of rubies and are the only color accents in the jewel. Queen Alexandra often wore the brooch at various events including her daughters, the future queen of Norway wedding.
The jewel passed to Princess Mary, Countess of Herwood, Alexandra’s granddaughter. Her descendants sold the brooch at a Suries auction in 2010. Also worth noting is the unique Edwwardian necklace from her collection. This unique piece consists of thin diamond rings connected by garlands of precious chains with a small diamond additionally suspended from the central ring.
All details are mounted on an elegant velvet ribbon. It is believed that Queen Alexandra purchased this remarkable necklace in the first decade of the 20th century. This jewel was worn by her during a trip on the Russian imperial yacht Standard in 1909. Then Alexandra showcased it at the Royal Horicultural Society exhibition in 1914.
And a few months later, the necklace was depicted in her 70th birthday portrait. After the Queen of Britain’s death until 1971, no one publicly wore this unique Edwardian necklace until Princess Anne. She appeared at the presentation of the Society of Film and Television Arts Award at the Royal Albert Hall, wearing this jewel and complimented her look with the diamond star brooch from her collection.
Shortly after, Anne again showcased Queen Alexandra’s jewel at a gala dinner at the residence of the British ambassador in Oslo during a state visit to Norway. The last time the elegant necklace complimented the image of Princess Anne was in 1973 when she together with her newlywed husband Mark Phillips attended a formal dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica in Kingston in honor of their honeymoon.
Princess Anne loves to surprise others with unexpected choices of jewelry. So, it’s quite likely that we will see her in the magnificent Eduwardian necklace again. Let’s delve into the next exquisite piece of royal jewelry. Queen Alexandra’s diamond crown crafted by the renowned royal jeweler Gerard in 1910.
This elegant diamond cirlet features a dazzling design of heraldic liies and maltes crosses set on a diamond base. The crown was commissioned specifically for Queen Alexandra to wear during her widowhood, likely as a more subdued replacement for George IV’s extravagant state diadem.
Interestingly, the crown may have originally included the famed Cullinin six diamond. One of the most notable public appearances of this diamond cirlet was in 1913 when Queen Alexandra wore it alongside Queen Victoria’s small diamond crown at the wedding of her granddaughter, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of F to Prince Arthur of Connot.
She was also seen wearing it during a state visit to Denmark in 1914. However, after that period, the crown seemed to vanish from public view. Upon Queen Alexander’s passing in 1925, the crown by then missing the Cullinin 6 was inherited by her daughter, Queen Ma of Norway. Queen Ma made a significant alteration by removing the diamond liies, transforming it into a simpler tiara adorned solely with Maltese crosses.
She wore this re-imagined version for major events. In 1938, Queen Ma traveled to England for surgery, bringing her entire jewelry collection with her. Tragically, she died of heart failure during her stay, and her jewels remained in the UK throughout the Norwegian royal family’s exile during World War II.
The collection was only retrieved in 1953 during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation celebrations. Following the death of Crown Princess Martha, Queen Ma’s daughter-in-law, the tiara remained unseen for decades. It wasn’t until 1968, around the time of Crown Prince Harold’s wedding, that Queen Alexandra’s diamond cirlet reemerged as part of the redistributed Norwegian royal jewelry collection.
Yet, it would take another 17 years before it was worn in public again. In 1985, the then Crown Princess Sonia debuted the diamond cirlet in its bandeau form, choosing to wear it throughout the 1980s and 1990s. On state visits to Denmark and Sweden, Princess Merit Louise was also spotted wearing this historic tiara.
Queen Sonia, unlike Queen Ma, often prefers a modern take. She wears three Maltese crosses clustered at the front of the tiara and styles the fourth as a brooch. At times, she has worn just the crosses alone, but most often she opts for the understated base of the cirlet. Despite its historical prestige, the tiara hasn’t been seen in public for more than a decade.
Now, let’s turn our attention to another piece of jewelry once owned by Queen Alexandra, the turquoise tiara. According to British press reports, in 1902, King Edward III presented Queen Alexandra with a turquoise tiara for her 58th birthday, a gesture that coincided with the celebrations surrounding her husband’s knighthood honors.
Though Queen Alexandra was frequently associated with turquoise jewelry, curiously, there are no known photographs of her wearing the tiara. After her death in 1925, the turquoise tiara was passed down to her youngest daughter, Queen Ma of Norway, who was seen wearing it in 1929 at the wedding gala of her son, Crown Prince Olaf, and Princess Mirththa of Sweden.
The tiara was a perfect complent to Queen Ma’s broader turquoise collection, which included several wedding gifts. In 1968, Princess Astred of Norway inherited the turquoise tiara and soon began incorporating it into her own royal wardrobe. Often she paired it with other turquoise pieces from Queen Ma’s collection, creating a striking per.
To this day, Princess Astrid continues to wear the tiara, and she has expressed her intention to eventually return it and the accompanying turquoise per line of the royal family. Moving on, let’s examine another iconic item. Queen Alexandra’s diamond choker necklace. This piece made up of interlocking diamond links set on a velvet band became one of Queen Alexandra’s signature accessories.
She famously wore chokers to conceal a scar on her neck, thereby popularizing the style across Europe. In photographs from the 1890s, Queen Alexandra is pictured wearing her choker alongside her sister, Empress Maria Fyodorona of Russia, who herself wore a magnificent sapphire version. Following Queen Alexandra’s death, this diamond choker, often referred to as the diamond link necklace, was inherited by Queen Ma of Norway.
As fashion trends evolved, the piece fell out of public use for several decades. However, in the 1980s, Queen Sonia revived interest in the style and adopted the choker as a regular part of her royal jewelry collection. It has since become a fixture at prestigious events such as the Nobel Peace Prize banquet, and it was also worn at personal occasions, including the golden wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1997.
Next up is the elegant diamond and pearl brooch belonging to Queen Alexandra. This stunning piece features a diamond cluster with a suspended pearl drop. It was worn by Alexandra, then Princess of Wales, at the 1893 wedding of her son, the future King George F, to Princess Mary of Tech. On that occasion, she wore the brooch with her Kakosnik tiara and a matching necklace, reportedly a wedding gift.
The brooch also appears in a formal portrait dated 1895. Its subsequent history remains somewhat obscure as the brooch has not been prominently featured in public since. Now, let’s revisit a truly historic creation. The Diamond Jubilee chain manufactured by Carrington and Co. in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 60th year on the throne.
This exquisite diamond chain is fitted with an imperial crown clasp and engraved with the dates 1837 1897. It was presented to the queen in a case inscribed in memory of the diamond jubilee 1837 1897 by Alfred and Mary Arthur and Louisa Margaret Helen and Christian Lewis and Lauren Beatatrice and Helen.
Queen Victoria wore the chain with pride during her diamond jubilee tour of London and at the Thanksgiving service outside St. Paul’s Cathedral. Following her death, the chain passed to her daughter-in-law, Queen Alexandra, who was later seen wearing it at the 1913 wedding of her granddaughter, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fe.
She paired it with the Maltese Cirlet tiara, completing a look of timeless grandeur. Queen Alexandra eventually passed the chain to her daughter, Princess Louise, Duchess of Fe, who later gave it to Princess Alexandra of Fe, the same granddaughter mentioned earlier. Around the early 1920s, during her husband’s appointment as governor general of South Africa, Princess Alexandra adapted the diamond jubilee chain into a shorter necklace and converted the remaining pieces into four bracelets.
In an official portrait, she paired this set with the canot fringe tiara, creating a stately and regal ensemble. Sadly, the duchess’s only son predesceased her, and the chain eventually went to her cousin and sister-in-law, Lady Patricia Ramsay. In 1974, Lady Patricia’s estate sold the Diamond Jubilee chain at a Sabby’s jewelry auction where it fetched $12,480.
Its current whereabouts are unknown, a mystery that continues to fascinate royal historians and jewelry lovers alike. Let’s dive into another fascinating piece of royal jewelry. Queen Alexandra’s diamond Kakashnik tiara. This stunning tiara was gifted to her by 365 prominent women in society in 1888 in celebration of her silver wedding anniversary with Prince Albert Edward.
Initially consisting of 77 graduated diamond bars, the tiara was designed by Gerard, the royal jeweler and was also versatile enough to be worn as a necklace. The design of the tiara was inspired by the Russian diamond Kokosnik tiara worn by Queen Alexandra’s sister, Empress Maria Fodorona. The kokosnik, originally a traditional Russian headdress, had evolved by the 19th century into elaborate tiaras, particularly those with fringe, which became a popular style in royal jewelry collections across Europe.
The Kokosnik tiara was presented to the Princess of Wales by the Marquis of Alsbury, who oversaw its creation. This tiara was a welcome addition to her jewelry collection, especially since it was the first major gift after her wedding per along with another tiara, an amethyst piece from Zar Nicholas II. Queen Alexandra wore the tiara on various occasions, most notably at the wedding of her son, the Duke of York, later King George I to Princess May of Tech in 1893.
Afterward, the tiara underwent modifications by Gerard with the self- adjusting setting and the removal of the smallest bars, leaving 61 bars and 488 diamonds. Queen Alexandra later lent the tiara to her mother, Queen Louise of Denmark, for a portrait, which was later used to create a relief of Queen Louise, now housed in a Malenborg Palace.
After Queen Alexandra’s death in 1925, the tiara passed to her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, who frequently wore it in portraits, such as the ones taken by Hay Wrightson, in 1934. Queen Mary kept it until her passing in 1953 when it was inherited by her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, just weeks before her coronation.
Queen Elizabeth debuted the tiara at the state opening of the New Zealand Parliament in 1954, and it made appearances during her 1954 Commonwealth tour. In 1959, the tiara was showcased at Christiey’s Diamonds Without Age exhibition. Recently, Queen Camila wore the tiara at the Qatar State Banquet at Buckingham Palace in 2024, marking a modern revival of this royal heirloom.
Now, let’s turn our attention to Queen Alexandra’s diamond chandelier earrings. These earrings were probably part of Queen Victoria’s Turkish diamond peru and were worn by Queen Alexandra as pendants on her necklaces in the 1880s, including her wedding necklace. After Queen Alexandra’s death in 1925, the earrings were inherited by her daughter, Queen Ma of Norway.
Although Queen Ma did not often wear them, the earrings were eventually passed on to her daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Martha, who was often seen wearing them in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly paired with Queen Josephine’s diamond tiara. After Crown Princess Martha’s death in 1954, the earrings were inherited by her son, King Harold.
His wife, Queen Sonia, wore them at numerous events from the 1960s onwards, often pairing them with Queen Ma’s pearl tiara or Queen Josephine’s diamond tiara. The earrings were last worn by Queen Sonia at the Storting Smidog. Both pieces of jewelry hold rich histories and have been passed down through generations, linking several royal families.
Which one of these incredible pieces impressed you the most? Share your thoughts in the comments.
