Princess Astrid unearthens “forgotten” tiara

The President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė, today began a two-day state visit to Norway and at the state banquet at the Royal Palace tonight Princess Astrid made a surprising choice of tiara. Photos from the banquet (external link) show the Princess wearing a diamond diadem across her forehead in the style which was fashionable in the 1920s.
This is the tiara which was the wedding present from King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria of Sweden to Princess Astrid’s mother, Crown Princess Märtha, in 1929. The Crown Princess wore it on a couple of smaller occasions in the early years of her marriage and occasionally as a bracelet in later years.
Since Crown Princess Märtha’s death in 1954 it has only been seen once, i.e. when Princess Astrid’s eldest daughter, Cathrine Ferner, wore it across her forehead at the banquet celebrating the then Crown Prince Harald’s 50th birthday in 1987.
When I asked Princess Astrid about this piece of jewellery a few years ago and why she never wore it, she explained that the way it should be worn “is not my style”. At the age of 79, the Princess tonight demonstrated that it is never too late to change one’s style.