Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
Yesterday, Queen Mary of Denmark surprised us all when she debuted a 175-year old Heirloom Bracelet from Queen Louise of Sweden and Norway for the first New Year’s Levée at Christiansborg Palace.
The gold bracelet with flat, round links that interlock like small waves is an engagement gift from 1850 from Charles XV of Sweden to his wife, Queen Louise.
The bracelet can be hooked together with an oval pendant with a large diamond and two slightly smaller diamonds surrounded by three diamond-studded rings. The pendant can also be worn as a brooch.
The Bracelet was an engagement gift from the future King Charles XV of Sweden to Princess Louise of the Netherlands upon their engagement in February 1850.
Upon Queen Louise’s untimely death in 1872, the Engagement Bracelet was among the jewels inherited by her only daughter, Queen Lovisa of Denmark, who transferred the jewelry to the Danish Royal Family’s Property Trust (Løsøre Fideikommis) in 1910.
The Bracelet does not seem to have been pictured until now when Queen Mary debuted Queen Louise of Sweden’s Engagement Bracelet as she and King Frederik X hosted a New Year’s Levée for the Diplomatic Corps at Christiansborg Palace, though the Bracelet does not appear to have been worn for the earlier New Year’s Levée at Christian VII’s Palace in Amalienborg. Let’s hope we see this magnificent heirloom worn again soon!
The Bracelet was paired with the Diamond Earrings from Anne of Orange, which were also inherited by the Danish Royal Family though Queen Louise of Sweden and Norway and her daughter Queen Lovisa of Denmark.