Dutch Royal Jewels: Princess Maxima's "Tutti Frutti" Set

One of the more unusual jewels in Princess Maxima’s collection is her Tutti Frutti set.

Maxima's Tutti Frutti Necklace

The name derives from the famous and very similar looking Cartier necklace created for Daisy Fellowes (a picture and brief description of that jewel is at the end of the article). 

Although the provenance of this necklace is unknown, it is almost certainly not Cartier: similar Cartier creations usually have a far higher price tag, and are generally very well-known.

Focus on... Kent Jewels: The Flower Brooch

This lovely flower brooch is worn not by one but three different royal ladies.

Princess Michael's Purple Flower Brooch

The brooch is in form of a flower with five petals, with a diamond cluster in the middle and five pearls between the petals. It may be Kiki McDonough creation, although there is no confirmation.

Dutch Royal Jewels: The Mellerio Ruby Parure

The Dutch Royals have arguably the best collection of ruby jewellery the European Royal Houses. Apart from various separate jewels, they actually have two complete ruby parures – the Peacock Parure and this Mellerio Ruby Parure.

The Mellerio Ruby Tiara

In 1889, King Willem III commissioned Mellerio to create a parure as a 30th birthday present to his second wife, Queen Emma. Originally, the French jeweller intended to use sapphires but in the end it was decided that rubies would look more fetching with the general design. 

Dutch Royal Jewels: The tiara Maxima will wear for the Inauguration

After the somewhat unexpected abdication announcement of Queen Beatrix, preparations are well underway for the Inauguration Ceremony of her son and heir, Willem-Alexander. While every detail of the service will be of great interest to me, one of the things I really want to know is which tiara Maxima will don for the day.

The magnificent Stuart Tiara

Traditionally, the Consort has no role during the actual ceremony apart from sitting on a throne next to the Monarch. However, I am quite certain the new Queen will do her best to sparkle on the day, without overshadowing the King. 

Dutch Royal Jewels: Queen Emma's Hair Ornament (Aigrette)

It is always great to see rarely-worn pieces again. But rarely-worn and unusual? That’s a double dose of happiness for any true jewelaholic.

Queen Emma's Aigrette worn as a hairpiece

In 1879 Queen Emma of the Netherlands received a beautiful diamond aigrette as a wedding present. The aigrette consists of twelve diamond twigs with leaves, and diamonds set in collet at the end. It’s a pretty versatile piece and can be worn both as a hair ornament and as a brooch: Maxima has worn it both ways, and both times with a stunning result. 

The first occasion in many decades (quite possibly, the first-time in over a century) the aigrette saw the light of the day was on 28 May 2011, for a concert during Princess Maxima’s 40th birthday celebrations. Back then, Maxima paired it with her gorgeous citrine earrings and brooch.

Dutch Royal Jewels: Princess Maxima's Diamond Drop Earrings

Princess Maxima is one of those lucky ladies who has a huge collection of jewels at her disposal, thanks to the tradition of sharing in the House of Orange-Nassau. From tiaras to earrings, she likes to dazzle on every occasion.

Princess Maxima's Diamond Drop Earrings

My favourite pair of earrings of the Princess may be a private property though because I have never seen any of the other Dutch Royal ladies wear it (mind you, that doesn't prove they never actually did).

The earrings are made of platinum and hold five large diamonds and a number of smaller brilliants. Three pear-shape diamonds are suspended from a large platinum oval fame adorned with brilliants; in the middle of the oval, an oval-shaped diamond is placed. The platinum ovals ends with a bow on the top, which itself is suspended from a round diamond.

Dutch Royal Jewels: Queen Emma’s Diamond Tiara

Queen Emma’s Diamond Tiara was commissioned by King William III of the Netherlands for his second wife, Queen Emma in 1890.

Queen Emma's Diamond Tiara

It was created by Royal Begeer and specifically designed to be able to incorporate the five of the six 12-pointed stars Queen Emma had received as a wedding gift in 1879 from her new relatives, the Von Wieds. The sixth star was left to be used as a brooch. 

Work on the tiara was finished shortly after the King’s death so the first occasion it was worn to was King Williams funeral. The original tiara consisted of three large centrepieces which could be topped with the star ornaments. At some point some minor adjustments were made and the large diamond buttons in the centre of each piece were made detachable. Usually, only the central stone is replaced with a ruby; however, Queen Beatrix is known to have swapped diamonds for rubies in all three.

Dutch Royal Jewels: Queen Wilhelmina's Diamond Haircomb

When old jewels that had been accumulating dust in royal vaults see the light of the day, it just warms my heart. And this one had a very long wait: it had been locked away for nearly a century.

Queen Wilhelmina's Diamond Haircomb

The diamond hair ornament or hair comb is in a fringe-like design. The top row diamonds are detachable and other pendants or jewels can be attached.

The piece originally belonged to Queen Wilhelmina and was presented to the Queen by her husband, Prince Hendrik, in late 1910s, along with several other pieces of jewellery.

Queen Wilhelmina wearing the diamond haircomb

Queen Wilhelmina wore it only on handful of (known) occasions on its own, as well as with pearl drops instead of top-row diamonds. This piece hadn't been seen since 1920s and some assumed it was either sold, or broken apart to create new jewels.

Dutch Royal Jewels: Queen Juliana’s Aquamarine Tiara and Parure

The Dutch Royal House has, in my opinion, one of the most stunning aquamarine jewellery collections. And since I happen to be a huge fan of the stone, I just couldn’t possibly miss the opportunity to cover the wonderful gems. Since most (if not all) of those jewels come from Queen Juliana’s collection, I count them all as one giant parure.

Queen Juliana's Aquamarine Tiara

The collection started nearly 90 years ago, in 1927; Princess Juliana received from her parents an art deco tiara made of Brazilian aquamarines and diamonds in a platinum frame. The base of the tiara is set with square-cut aquamarines with seven larger aquamarine briolette drops on the top. The tiara was created by the Kempen, Begeer & Vos.

Dutch Royal Jewels: The Pearl Button Tiara

The origins of the tiara go back to the first half of 19th century; when Sophie of Wurttemberg married William III of the Netherlands (then a Crown Prince), she brought with her a large number of jewels.

The Pearl Button Tiara

Among them was a Strawberry Leaf Coronet which is purported to be the base of the Pearl Button Tiara. I used the term purported because the base of the coronet (as seen in Queen Sophie’s portraits) and the base of the current tiara look markedly different to me. If you squint hard you can sort of see distant similarities so I guess it’s possible the base of the original tiara was changed over the decades so much it’s barely recognisable now.