Queen Mary’s quest to showcase heirloom jewels within the Danish
Royal Collections continued in Estonia on Tuesday, as the Danish
queen wore a nearly 200-year-old sapphire brooch as a spotlight
piece of her outfit.
King Frederik
and Queen Mary arrived in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, for a
two-day state visit to the Baltic country on Tuesday morning. It’s
part of a charm offensive in the Baltic States, which will see the
royal couple also travel to Lithuania for a two-day state visit
beginning Wednesday afternoon.
The Danish royal couple arrived at the Town Hall Square in
Tallinn and met with President Alar Karis and First Lady Sirje
Karis at the welcoming ceremony. They laid a wreath at the Monument
to the War of Independence and later visited the Memorial to the
Victims of Communism in Maarjamäe.
King Frederik and Queen Mary then traveled to the Estonian
Statehood House for an official luncheon, and it was there that
Queen Mary revealed that she was wearing a 186-year-old sapphire
brooch on her dress.
King Frederik and Queen Mary
in Estonia Photo: Kongehuset ©
According to the Danish Royal Family’s website, the Flood Sapphire
Brooch was created around 1840 for Queen Marie Sophie Frederikke,
consort of King Frederik VI. It left the royal collections in 1872,
when Duchess Wilhelmine of Glücksborg, their daughter, donated it
to raise money for flood relief in Lolland-Falster. Queen Louise,
consort to King Christian IX would later repurchase the brooch and
leave it to Crown Princess Alexandrine, and afterwards it was
entrusted to the Danish Royal Family’s jewel vault by either Queen
Alexandrine or Queen Ingrid.
The Flood Sapphire is an emerald-cut sapphire surrounded by
small diamonds and encircled by 22 larger diamonds.
Flood Sapphire Photo:
Kongehuset ©
After lunch, King Frederik and Queen Mary met with Estonian
Speaker of the Parliament, Lauri Hussar, at the Riigikogu. They
then travelled to the Rakett69 Science Studios with the
Presidential Couple to meet with girls interested in the
sciences.
In the evening, Queen Mary wore her
wedding tiara at a state banquet hosted by Estonian President
Karis at the St. Nicholas Church. The diamond tiara features
scroll, fleur-de-lys, and festoon design elements, and can be worn
as a necklace as well. It was a wedding gift from Queen Margrethe
and Prince Henrik, and the provenance has never been definitively
confirmed. Queen Mary had the tiara altered in 2011 so that pearls
could be attached to the fleurs-de-lys and and row of pearls could
be added to the base.
Queen Mary wears her wedding
tiara at Estonia State Banquet YouTube screenshot / Fair
Use
Since becoming Queen Consort, Queen Mary has delighted royal
watchers with her penchant for digging heirlooms out of the jewel
vaults.
Last fall on a
state visit to Latvia, Queen Mary wore the Pearl Poire brooch and
earrings that were belonged to a parure created for the wedding
of Princess Louise of Prussia and Prince Frederick of the
Netherlands in 1825.
Kongehuset ©️
Their granddaughter, Princess Lovisa of Sweden, married Crown
Prince Frederik of Denmark in 1869, and received parts of the Pearl
Poire set on her wedding day and subsequent pieces later on. The
newlyweds would later become King Frederik VIII and Queen Louise
and reigned from 1906 to 1912; the pearls became part of the jewel
vault and have been worn ever since.
Det Danske Kongehus
Instagram still/ fair use
Queen Mary also debuted a
200-year-old golden tiara during a state visit to Finland last
March; wearing a golden tiara created for Queen Caroline Amalie
in 1820 that features gemstones from Pompeii and Rome. Queen Mary’s
golden bracelet also dated back to the 1820s and featured gemstones
found around Mount Vesuvius.