Princess Ingeborg’s Turquoise Brooch

Today marks the 15th Anniversary of the Death of Countess Ruth of Rosenborg, who passed away on this day in 2010! The wealthy commoner married a Danish Prince that gave up his succession rights and became a Count, Countess Ruth inherited many royal heirlooms, including Princess Ingeborg’s Turquoise Brooch!

The exact origin of the brooch is unknown but the Belle Epoque design set in a knife-edge frame, set with a cabochon turquoise, which originally seems to have held an emerald.

Princess Ingeborg notably wore the Brooch, set with the emerald, as a Pendant suspended from a string of pearls in a portrait in the 1910s.

Princess Ingeborg also notably wore the Brooch for the Engagement of her daughter, Princess Martha of Sweden, to her nephew, Crown Prince Olav of Norway, in 1929.

A few years later, the Brooch had been set with a Turquoise when it was worn by Crown Princess Märtha of Norway with the Turquoise Star Tiara for King Gustav V’s 80th Birthday Banquet in 1938.

The Turquoise Brooch was among the jewels eventually inherited by Princess Ingeborg’s eldest daughter, Princess Margaretha of Sweden and Denmark, who sometimes wore the Brooch with the Turquoise Star Tiara at the Nobel Prize Ceremony.

Princess Margaretha loaned Princess Ingeborg’s Turquoise Brooch and the Turquoise Star Tiara to her daughter-in-law, Countess Ruth, for the Wedding of Princess Astrid of Norway in 1961.

Princess Ingeborg’s Turquoise Brooch was worn by Countess Ruth with the Turquoise Star Tiara for the Wedding of Crown Prince Haakon of Norway in 2001 and also the Wedding of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in 2004.

More recently, Princess Ingeborg’s Turquoise Brooch was worn by Countess Ruth’s daughter-in-law, Countess Jutta of Rosenborg, with the Turquoise Star Tiara for King Harald’s 70th Birthday Banquet in 2007, and will no doubt be worn by Countess Jutta for years to come!