Just when you think tiara season (a.k.a. December) couldn't get any better, the Swedish royals made yet another glamorous appearance on Thursday, December 11. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm every December, and members of Sweden's royal family never fail to make a fashion statement at the formal events surrounding the Nobels.
This year, it was Princess Madeleine who stood out at King Carl Gustaf's Nobel dinner, wearing a New Year's Eve-ready gown by Monique Lhuillier. The plunging style featured a black velvet top with a shimmery gold sequined skirt, and Madeleine accented it with a historic tiara from the family's collection.
Although most tiaras are covered in diamonds, pearls or other precious gems, the Napoleonic Steel Cut Tiara stands out because it doesn't have any gemstones at all. The gold design is crafted from gold and polished steel beads, according to The Court Jeweller, and was created for Hortense de Beauharnais, Empress Joséphine's daughter and Queen of Holland, in the early 1800s.
Hortense's jewelry was passed down through the family and ended up in the hands of Queen Josephine of Sweden and Norway, who died in 1876. But the tiara, along with a set of other jewelry, disappeared until it was discovered in 1976 by art historian Göran Alm, per The Court Jeweller.
Alm was looking for objects to include in an exhibition at the palace and happened to stumble upon the steel-cut treasures inside a storage cupboard. Fortunately, Queen Silvia had the pieces restored, and the tiara went into regular rotation with the royal family.
Along with her more than 200-year-old tiara, Princess Madeleine wore another piece of historic jewelry, wearing the same diamond earrings she wore on her wedding day. The enormous drop earrings date all the way back to the 1700s, and she paired them with a more modern piece in the form of a Cartier Love Bracelet, adding a gold cuff and a diamond bracelet to her ensemble.
