Emeralds in Norway

In the Norwegian royal family there is another great garniture, the emerald parure. It has been said that the emeralds were worn by the Empress Josephine at her coronation but that is not correct. That parure was not like the Norwegian: it consisted of emeralds, pearls and diamonds.

An emerald parure was inherited by Empress Josephine's other grandchild, Princess Amelie of Leuchtenberg, a sister of Queen Josefina of Sweden, from her mother, Duchess Amalie Augusta of Leuchtenberg. Amelie became Empress of Brazil when she married the widower, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. They had a daughter who died young.

Empress Amelie lay dying exiled in Lisbon in 1873. Her sister, Josefina, her closest surviving relative travelled from Sweden to be with her sister for the last time. In her will the Empress Amelie left her emeralds together with most of her other jewellery and a very magnificient silver service to her sister.

Josefina died three years later leaving her emeralds to her daughter-in-law, Queen Sofia of Sweden who loaned the parure to Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Queen Ingrid's mother, for the coronation in London in 1911 of King George V and Queen Mary. At that time the collier had seven pendants. When Queen Sofia died in 1913 she left her emeralds to Princess Ingeborg, born a princess of Denmark, married to Queen Sophie's son Carl, and Princess Ingeborg wore the emerald set for many years. They were the parents of Queen Astrid of the Belgians and of Märtha, Crown Princess of Norway. When Martha in 1937 gave birth to the future King Harald V, Prince Carl and Princess Ingeborg gave the parure to their daughter. Crown Princess Märtha wore the emeralds for the coronations in London in 1937 and 1953.

Queen Sonja of Norway often wears the emerald parure now consisting of a tiara, earrings, collier with one pendant, and two brooches. Princess Ingeborg's collier had only one pendant so the other pendants can have been left by Queen Sofia or Princess Ingeborg to someone else or perhaps used for other jewellery. Princess Ingeborg had the earrings made from parts of the tiara. The tiara is very easy to recognise as it has a large square-cut emerald in front.

I am quite convinced that the necklace, the largest brooch and the eardobs are from the Empire - I am on the other hand convinced that the tiara is not even if some of its elements are very typical for the empire style. Most likely the tiara is made in the 1820'ies or later, and perhaps it is made by mixing a tiara with other emerald jewellery. Why is it not a Napoleonic tiara? It is too short - Napoleonic tiaras are made to lie around the coiffure. To me an empire jeweller would also not place the large emerald in the middle the way it is done, and I do not think either that the eardobs would be placed as they were in the tiara.