Happy Birthday to Queen Silvia of Sweden, who turns 81 today! The German-Brazilian Interpreter who became Queen of Sweden and founded the World Childhood Foundation, Queen Silvia has worn much of the splendid Swedish Royal Collection over the past five decades as the longest-serving Swedish Queen Consort, which includes the Swedish Pink Topaz Parure!

The Demi-Parure is composed of a heavy necklace of nine topaz and diamond elements with three pendants, a small round brooch, and a larger brooch with three pendants, which can be detached to be worn as earrings, all of which are set with magnificent high-quality Pink Russian Topazes.

The Pink Topaz Parure was a wedding gift from Tsar Paul I of Russia to his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, when she married Grand Duke Carl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1804. The Pink Topaz Demi-Parure was inherited by their daughter, Princess Augusta, who became the Empress of Germany, and then went to her daughter, who became Grand Duchess Louise of Baden before arriving in Sweden in 1923, having been inherited by her daughter, who was Queen Victoria of Sweden, who left to the Family foundation in 1930.

The Topaz Parure was worn quite regularly by her daughter-in-law, Crown Princess and later Queen Louise, most notably with the Braganza Tiara at the Coronation of her cousin, King George VI, in 1937, and with the Baden Fringe Tiara at Queen Juliana’s Inauguration Gala in 1948.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Pink Topaz Demi-Parure was also worn by her daughter-in-law, Princess Sibylla, and her daughter, Princess Christina, mostly around the time they served as the ‘First Ladies’ of Sweden, in the absence of a Queen. Princess Christina also wore it at the 2006 Nobel Prize Ceremony.

Princess Désirée wore the Pink Topaz Demi-Parure with the Baden Fringe Tiara for the Wedding Gala of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in 1976.

After the Wedding of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in 1976, the Pink Topaz Parure was worn by the new Queen Silvia with the Braganza Tiara for her first Official Portraits.

Over the years, Queen Silvia has worn the Pink Topaz Parure for numerous Nobel Prize Ceremonies, usually paired with the Nine Prong Tiara or the Connaught Diamond Tiara, as well as for the Wedding Gala of cousin Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece in 1995, King Carl Gustaf’s 50th Birthday in 1996, and cousin Queen Margrethe of Denmark’s 60th Birthday in 2000.

Queen Silvia also wore the Pink Topaz Demi-Parure with the Braganza Tiara and Nine Prong Tiara for several Official Portraits, and also a State Visit to Denmark in 2007.

Queen Silvia also paired the Pink Topaz Parure with the Braganza Tiara for the Wedding of her eldest daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, in 2010, which was one of her most splendid appearances.

Queen Silvia wore the Pink Topaz Demi-Parure with the Nine Prong Tiara for the Wedding Gala of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg and Countess Stephanie de Lannoy in 2012, the same combination worn for an official portrait in 2014, which was the last time the Necklace was publicly worn.

In 2023, Princess Madeleine wore the Pink Topaz Earrings with the Modern Fringe Tiara for King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Jubilee Banquet at the Royal Palace of Stockholm.

More recently, Crown Princess Victoria wore the Pink Topaz Earrings for the first time with the Baden Fringe Tiara at the Nobel Prize Ceremony earlier this month. There is no doubt we will continue to see this magnificent heirloom for years to come!

The Braganza Tiara