We were treated to a bejeweled surprise from Denmark today: a new set of glittering gala portraits of King Frederik X and Queen Mary, featuring Mary wearing pieces from the crown jewel collection for the very first time in public!
New portraits of King Frederik X and Queen Mary in full gala attire were taken earlier this month in the Green Room at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen by the photographer Steen Evald. The images have been released ahead of next month’s inaugural state visits with the King’s fellow Scandinavian monarchs. Frederik and Mary will arrive in Stockholm for a visit with King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden on May 6, and then on May 14, they’ll begin a state visit in Oslo with King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway. (Tiaras galore!)
King Frederik wore his full gala uniform with medals and decorations for the portrait session. You’ll spot the collar and star of the Order of the Elephant and the neck badge and star of the Order of Dannebrog on his jacket. Queen Mary also wears the collar and star of the Order of the Elephant on her Birgit Hallstein gown. UFO No More confirms that the gown is a custom piece, made of dark green silk velvet and lace.
But I know what you’re all really here for: the jewels! In these portraits, Mary officially makes her debut in one of the four parures from the Danish crown jewel collection. She wears the tiara, earrings, and necklace from the Danish Emerald Parure, as well as a modern emerald and diamond ring and her upgraded engagement and wedding rings.
The tiara, necklace, and earrings were made in 1840 by the German goldsmith Carl Martin Weisshaupt. The parure features floral and ribbon designs. In their press materials for today’s portrait release, the Danish court notes that the set was “inspired by the French crown jewels of the time.”
Here’s a closer look at the tiara. Some of the emeralds in the suite have an even lengthier history within the Danish royal family. They originally belonged to Queen Sophie Magdalene of Denmark. Her husband, King Christian VI, gave her the emeralds in 1723 as a present to celebrate the birth of their son and heir, the future King Frederik V of Denmark.
The emeralds were combined with new stones by Weisshaupt in 1840 to make the more modern parure. The set, which is displayed at Rosenborg Slot when it’s not being used, also includes a large corsage ornament. The Danish crown jewels belong to the state and are used exclusively by the Queen, but they don’t travel outside of Denmark as a general rule, meaning that Mary will only wear them for gala occasions on Danish soil.
The more modern emerald parure was made for Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark, who was the (legal) granddaughter of King Christian VII of Denmark and the wife of King Christian VIII. In the spring and summer of 1840, Christian and Caroline Amalie marked two major milestones: their silver wedding anniversary and their coronation. Caroline Amalie had the crown jewels renovated at the same time, and the Danish court suggests that Christian may have funded the project as a gift to mark those celebrations.
As a sidenote: I did an extensive overview of the four parures from the crown jewel collection, focusing on Caroline Amalie’s interesting life, as well as the renovation of the jewels and their links to Danish royal generations past, over at Hidden Gems back in January. Subscribers can read that article here!
The tradition of wearing the crown jewels for gala occasions was revived in the twentieth century by King Frederik’s grandmother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark. She’s pictured above wearing the jewels from the emerald parure at Amalienborg in 1963.
Her daughter, Queen Margrethe II, was also an enthusiastic wearer of the crown jewels. She wears the emerald parure above during her 70th birthday celebrations in Copenhagen in April 2010.
Now, Queen Mary has become the exclusive wearer of the jewels. She can’t take this set with her when she visits Sweden and Norway in the next few weeks, so it was a lovely decision to wear the emeralds for this first gala portrait of her husband’s reign. (I covered the grandest tiaras now available for the new Queen Mary to wear in a recent article as well. I’d imagine that we’ll see her pack the Pearl Poiré Tiara and its coordinating parure, as well as the Ruby Parure, in her luggage for the Scandinavian state visits.)
You’ll also have spotted another new feature in the images. Queen Mary is wearing a portrait miniature of her husband for the first time. Previously, she wore her mother-in-law’s portrait when in full gala mode. This new portrait was painted by a British artist, Tom Mulliner. The diamond frame that surrounds the portrait is special, too. Originally made for Empress Amelie of Brazil, who was a sister of Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway, the frame was brought to Copenhagen by Josefina’s granddaughter, Queen Lovisa of Denmark, in the nineteenth century.
Over the years, the frame has housed portraits of several monarchs. Queen Alexandrine and Queen Ingrid both wore it with portraits of their spouses, and more recently, Queen Margrethe II wore the frame with a portrait of her late father, King Frederik IX. Now, the grand diamond frame has been passed along to Queen Mary, just like the Danish crown jewels.
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