Queen Mary of Denmark is set to make an especially sentimental trip home this March as she heads to her birthplace of Australia with King Frederik on an official state visit. The royal tour will be the first time Mary, who was born in Tasmania, Australia, has visited home as Denmark’s queen, and she’ll be taking part in a range of official engagements, including a special state dinner. While this means royal fans can look forward to a big tiara moment from Queen Mary, there’s one historic piece she won’t be allowed to wear.
As noted by Hello!, Queen Mary will be “forbidden” to bring one set of royal jewels into the country: the Danish Emerald Parure.
Consisting of a tiara, necklace, earrings and brooch, the diamond and emerald set is an “exceptional example of 19th-century royal jewelry,” as Oliver Hobart, jewelry expert and creative director of wholesale jewellers 925E, tells Marie Claire.
“Unlike most royal jewelry, it forms part of the official Crown Jewels, meaning the pieces belong to the Danish state rather than the monarch personally,” Hobart says. “Because of that status, the jewels are required to remain in Denmark and are traditionally kept at Rosenborg Castle when not being worn by the reigning queen.”
This means that the sparkling emerald tiara and its matching jewelry “cannot accompany Queen Mary on overseas visits, even one as personally significant as a state visit to Australia,” Hobart explains.
Although Mary won't be able to wear the diamond and emerald designs, which were commissioned to celebrate Queen Caroline Amalie's silver wedding anniversary in 1840, she has plenty of other dazzling options in the royal vaults.
“For a visit to Australia, several options would make natural choices,” Hobart shares, suggesting that the Pearl Poiré Tiara would “bring both heritage and a softer, luminous look suitable for a state banquet.” The diadem, which looks extremely similar to Princess Diana’s favorite tiara, Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot, features pearls swinging from diamond-encrusted arches.
Hobart suggests pieces from the Danish Ruby Parure as “another strong possibility” for Mary’s trip to Australia, noting the tiara’s “vivid color reads particularly well at evening events.”
“Her diamond wedding tiara could also be a meaningful choice,” the jewelry expert adds. “Gifted by Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik for her 2004 wedding, it carries personal significance and would feel especially fitting for a visit to her home country.”
Fortunately, royal fans won't have long to wait—Queen Mary and King Frederik will arrive in Australia on March 14.
