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Queen Maxima of the Netherlands: Inauguration Tiara

The Saphire parure was a gift of King Willem III to his wife Queen Emma in 1881.
The design is probably by the famous jewelery-designer Oscar Masin who also worked for the Paris jewelery-firm of Mellerio.

Original design of 1867 with diamonds in place of the sapphires

Oscar Masin was a master-jeweler who worked/designed for several jewelery-houses. The original design of the tiara is already drawn up by him in 1867 but it was 1881 when it actually came to making and delivering this tiara.

On the 14th of December 1881 the large tiara was delivered to the Dutch Royal House also together with a second frame (for a much smaller setting for using only the top row of 27 diamonds from the big Tiara) and also with two huge diamond and sapphire bracelets.

Tiara design of 1881.

The 31 sapphires came from kashmir and the 655 brilliant-cut diamonds used for this tiara came from the Jagers-Fontein-Diamonds-Mine in South-Africa.

The setting is partly done with "pampille en tremblant" a technique used often by Oscar Masin and which he perfected.

This technique is to put diamonds (in their setting) on very small movable springs that bring out the most of the sparkle of the diamonds! Because of this the sapphire tiara and also the small other tiara that can be made with another frame have a great capacity to catch the light because of the little movements due to the small springs with which the diamonds are attached.

Alternate versions

In 1928 the tiara was totally renewed when (identical to the original design) a new frame was made by the dutch jewelery-company "Van Kempen en Vos" in The Hague. The old frame was made of gold and the new much lighter frame was made with platinum.

Queen Beatrix

The design of the necklace looks a lot like the tiara's design and is of later date but made to match the tiara. The big pendant of the necklace is nowadays often worn as pendant on a bow-pin and that makes it a brooch now, often worn by both Queen Beatrix and Princes Margriet.

The tiara was worn by HM Queen Maxima of the Netherlands on 30 April 2013; the Inauguration of King Willem-Alexander.

Queen Maxima

The Orange-Nassau Family has lots of sapphires in their possession even one of 163 carats (to compare: the biggest sapphire in the front of the Tiara is 44 carats). Several of these were originally bought by Queen Anna-Pavlovna (wife of William II of the Netherlands) who loved saphires!

Queen Maxima

Source

• Royal Magazine, "Sapphires Parure -- Queen Emma"
• Dutch Royal Jewels, "Sapphire Parure of Queen Emma"

Inauguration Gown of Queen Maxima of the Netherlands

Inauguration custom made gown of Queen Maxima by Dutch designer Jan Taminiau.

The Royal family of the Netherlands; King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Princess Beatrix (former Queen) and the daughters of the King and Queen TRH Princesses of the Netherlands.

The current heir is now their eldest daughter, HRH Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau (official name: Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria; born 7 December 2003). Her official title in Dutch is Hare Koninklijke Hoogheid De Prinses van Oranje.

30 APRIL 2013: ABDICATION of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

The eve of Queen Beatrix's abdication

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has made a farewell national address on the eve of her abdication and investiture of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander. 

The queen thanked the Dutch people for their "heart-warming displays of affection" and paid tribute to her late husband, Prince Claus.

The queen was also attending a sumptuous gala dinner in her honour at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

She has been head of state since 1980, when her mother abdicated.

Monday evening's gala dinner was attended by her family and other invited royals and high-ranking dignitaries, including Britain's Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Spain and Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik and his wife.

In her televised address, an emotional Queen Beatrix said that the people's devotion had given her the strength to carry on during her 33-year reign.

"Without your heart-warming and encouraging displays of affection, the burdens, which certainly have existed, would have weighed heavily."

Paying tribute to Prince Claus, who died in 2002, she said he had helped modernise the House of Orange.

"Perhaps history will bear out that the choice of my partner was my best decision."
The queen said hereditary authority of itself did not give substance to a contemporary monarchy; rather this was earned through "the will to serve the country".

Willem-Alexander is well-prepared for the task ahead of him and will stand above party and group interests, she said.

Now aged 75, the woman known affectionately as Queen Bea has said it is time for a new generation to take over.

In a short ceremony in the Royal Palace on Tuesday, she will sign the instrument of abdication.
Her son will become the Netherlands' first king since Willem III, who died in 1890.

Earlier on Monday, Willem-Alexander, 46, his future queen Maxima, an Argentinian-born investment banker, and their three children took part in a final dress rehearsal at Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk.

Abdication 'tradition'

Signing the throne over to her son, Willem-Alexander

Queen Beatrix is the sixth monarch from the House of Orange-Nassau, which has ruled the Netherlands since the early 19th Century.

Correspondents say she is extremely popular with most Dutch people, but her abdication was widely expected and will not provoke a constitutional crisis.

Under Dutch law, the monarch has few powers and the role is considered ceremonial.
In recent decades it has become the tradition for the monarch to abdicate.

Queen Beatrix's mother Juliana resigned the throne in 1980 on her 71st birthday, and her grandmother Wilhelmina abdicated in 1948 at the age of 68.

She has remained active in recent years, but her reign has also seen traumatic events.
In 2009 a would-be attacker killed eight people when he drove his car into crowds watching the queen and other members of the royal family in a national holiday parade.

In February last year her second son, Prince Friso, was struck by an avalanche in Austria and remains in a coma.

King and Queen of the Netherlands

 Source

• BBC News. "Queen Beatrix thanks Dutch people on eve of abdication," 30 April 2013.