Saturday, March 04, 2006

The Khedive of Egypt Cartier Tiara

A jewel of great sentimental value to the Danish Royal Family
is the diamond and platinum Cartier tiara of Crown Princess
Margarita of Sweden. It was originally a weddng gift from
the Khedive of Egypt to Princess Margaret of Connaught, who
was to marry the future King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden in
1905. Egypt was the place where the royal couple first met.



After the untimely death of Crown Princess Margarita in 1920,
the tiara was inherited by her daughter Princess Ingrid, who
brought it with her when she married into the Danish Royal
Family in 1935. Upon her death in 2000 the tiara passed on
to Queen Ingrid's youngest daughter, Queen Anne-Marie of
Greece.



When the three daughters of Queen Ingrid got married, they
wore their grandmother's tiara as a way to acknowledge her
memory; Princess Margrethe in 1967, Princess Benedikte in
1968 and Princess Anne-Marie in 1964.



This lovely family tradition was carried out in the next
generation, with Princess Benedikte's older daughter
Princess Alexandra zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
wearing the tiara in 1998, and Queen Anne-Marie of
Greece's Alexia wearing it in 1999. The two remaining
unmarried female descendants of Queen Ingrid are
Princess Theodora of Greece and Princess Nathalie zu
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, so the tradition will
continue.



An engraving of the Khedive of Egypt tiara in the June 17,
1905 edition of the Illustrated London News. The tiara
could have also been worn as a corsage ornament, as shown
here.

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