Today marks the 30th Anniversary of the Death of Hereditary Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark, who passed away in 1995! The Danish Princess who married her first cousin and was briefly set to become the next Danish Queen Consort, until being superseded by Queen Margrethe, Hereditary Princess Caroline-Mathilde had received Queen Alexandrine’s Russian Sapphire Tiara!
When Princess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin married Prince Christian of Denmark in 1898, Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia gave a Tiara composed of eight oval-cut ceylon sapphires and is attributed to jewellers C.E. Bolin in St. Petersburg.
While Queen Alexandrine was never photographed wearing the piece as a Tiara, she wore some of the sapphire elements as pendants and brooches.
In 1933, Queen Alexandrine presented the Russian Sapphire Tiara to Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark on wedding to her second son, Prince Knud, who wore the piece in it’s earliest configuration in a portrait, King Christian X’s Silver Jubilee in 1937, and the Wedding Gala of Crown Prince Paul of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover in 1938.
Princess Caroline-Mathilde also notably wore the Russian Sapphire Tiara for the the wedding of her sister Princess Alexandrine Louise and Count Luitpold of Castell-Castell, as well as the Wedding of Prince Christian of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Feodora of Denmark in 1937.
Like her mother-in-law, Princess Caroline-Mathilde wore the sapphire elements of the tiara on a necklace, along with Princess Thyra’s Sapphire Tiara.
Princess Caroline-Mathilde later modified the top of the Queen Alexandrine’s Russian Sapphire Tiara, and wore that version at the wedding of her son, Count Ingolf, who has described his memories of the piece as:
As a boy, the jewellery of the ladies wasn’t exactly at the top of my mind. But my mother, Hereditary Princess Caroline-Mathilde, received the piece of jewellery as a wedding gift from my grandmother and grandfather (her in-laws, King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine), which was originally a gift from my grandmother and grandfather’s relatives – Tsar Nikolai II and Tsaritsa Alexandra of Russia. It was a Russian piece of jewellery with sapphires and diamonds, which my mother used both as a necklace and as a bandeau, as can be seen in photographs from back then. At a later date, my mother had the jewellery changed to its present form, and I remember very well her wearing this Russian sapphire tiara.”
After Princess Caroline-Mathilde death in 1995, she bequeathed Queen Alexandrine’s Russian Sapphire Tiara to her younger son, Count Christian, and was worn by his wife, Countess Anne Dorte at a variety of royal events, beginning with Prince Joachim’s Wedding Ball and Wedding in 1995.
Count Christian gifted the Tiara to his wife for her 50th Birthday in 1997, with the note that said this tiara “has been your mother-in-law’s and before that her mother-in-law’s”, and it was worn by Countess Anne Dorte for the Wedding of Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Count Jefferson von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth, Queen Margrethe’s 60th Birthday in 2000, the Wedding of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in 2004, 70th Birthday in 2010, and Queen Margrethe’s Ruby Jubilee Banquet in 2012.
After Count Christian and Countess Anne Dorte’s deaths in 2013 and 2014 respectively, the Tiara was inherited by Countess Josephine, Countess Camilla, Countess Feodora of Rosenborg, who sold the Tiara for DKK 2,000,000 at Auction at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen in 2018.
Since the sale, Queen Alexandrine’s Russian Sapphire Tiara has been on display at the Amalienborg Palace Museum on loan from the private owner.
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