Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
The Finnish President, Alexander Stubb, and his wife, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, arrived in Norway on Tuesday, 15 October to begin their three day State Visit to the country. Queen Sonja, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and Princess Astrid all chose historic tiaras for the State Dinner.
Queen Sonja chose one of the most impressive tiaras in the Norwegian collection, the Norwegian Emerald Parure Tiara. Historians still debate the date of creation for this tiara- it may have been as early as the 1806 or as late as the 1830s, but remains one of the oldest pieces in the Norwegian collection.
This tiara has a tall silhouette and features a large square, cabochon-cut emerald with a smaller pear-shaped emerald below. The bottom band of the taira features palmettes, rosettes, and scrolls with a number of smaller emeralds to join the hundreds of diamonds in the platinum and gold frame.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit went with one of her favourite sparklers, the Diamond Daisy Bandeau Tiara. The bandeau style tiara features a repeating row of diamond daisies, and was a wedding gift from King Harald and Queen Sonja. While the tiara is a relatively new addition to the family’s vaults, it is thought to date back to 1910.
Princess Astrid wore the Vasa Tiara, one that is almost a century old. The city of Stockholm gave Princess Martha of Sweden this tiara for her 1929 wedding to Crown Prince Olav of Norway. It was made by jeweller C.J. Carlman, and the platinum frame is set with nearly 1,000 diamonds. It takes its name from the old Swedish dynasty, the Vasa, whose heraldic crest is represented amongst the jewels.