Queen Sofia’s Pink Topaz Tiara

Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the Death of Countess Estelle Bernadotte, who passed away on this day in 1984! The American Heiress who married the Swedish Count and became a beloved member of the Swedish Royal Family, Countess Estelle possessed Queen Sofia’s Pink Topaz Tiara!

The exact origin of this Parure is unknown, but it dates from the 1870s, and in the inventory of her jewels, Queen Sofia recored a tiara of nine large pink topazes and diamonds, a necklace of pink topazes and diamonds, a golden bracelet with one large pink topaz set in diamonds, and a brooch made of one large pink topaz and diamonds, all valued at 9,600 SEK.

Queen Sofia was first portrayed wearing her Pink Tourmaline Tiara for a portrait by Hilda Lindgren in 1875, around the same time as a series of portraits were taken.

Queen Sofia was also portrayed wearing the Pink Topaz Tiara in Knud Bergslien’s painting of the Coronation of. King Oscar II as King of Norway in Trondhjem, which was created in 1882.

When Queen Sofia died in 1913, she left her Nine Prong Tiara to her son, King Gustav V, and the Napoleonic Emerald Parure to Prince Carl, while her Pink Tourmaline Tiara and Parure, which were described by Queen Sofia as ‘pale rubies’ in her will, were inherited by her second son, Prince Oscar. Princess Ebba Bernadotte most notably wore Pink Tourmaline Tiara and Parure for King Gustav V’s 80th Birthday in 1938.

Upon Princess Ebba Bernadotte’s passing in 1946, the Pink Tourmaline Tiara and Parure were inherited by her youngest son, Count Folke, and often worn by his wife, Countess Estelle Bernadotte, on numerous occasion, including during the British State Visit to Sweden in 1956.

Countess Estelle retained Queen Sofia’s Pink Tourmaline Tiara and Parure after Count Folke’s tragic assignation in 1948, usually wearing the Tiara for the Opening of Parliament as well as some Banquets at the Royal Palace of Stockholm.

After Countess Estelle’s death in 1984, Queen Sofia’s Pink Tourmaline Tiara and Parure were inherited by her elder son, Count Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg, and were worn by his wife, Countess Christine Bernadotte, on a handful of occasions through the 1980s.

It was revealed by the Norwegian Historian Trond Norén Isaksen that Queen Sofia’s Pink Tourmaline Tiara and Parure was acquired by King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway, which was unfortunately stolen at Garrards in 1995, before making a public appearance.

It was back in 2011 that Count Folke (the younger) and Countess Christine Bernadotte af Wisborg told me that they had sold these jewels to the Norwegian royal family after the death of Folke’s mother Estelle in 1984.

When Bertil Bernadotte, Estelle Bernadotte’s younger son, asked the Queen why she had never worn his mother’s jewels, the Queen explained that they had been stolen in London. This was in 1995, when Queen Maud’s pearl and diamond tiara, «a larger parure» and fifteen smaller pieces of jewellery were stolen in an armed heist against the then crown jeweller Garrard, which remains unsolved.

For the insurance money, the King and Queen purchased a new tiara and parure, which can only be the amethyst parure, which made its first appearance in April 1997.