Royal jewels: Princess Madeleine’s wedding jewellery

There had been some speculation ahead of Saturday’s wedding between Princess Madeleine and Christopher O’Neill about what tiara the bride would wear, with speculation focusing on the cameo tiara which was worn by Crown Princess Victoria, Queen Silvia, Princess Désirée and Princess Birgitta for their weddings and has thereby come to being considered as some sort of tradition for weddings.
However, Princess Madeleine chose to break this “tradition” and rather wear the tiara most closely associated with her. This tiara may be considered a modern interpretation of the classic fringe tiaras, but very little is known about its origins or provenance. It was first seen on Queen Silvia in the late 1980s, but the royal court only describes it as “private” and has never given further information about it, so it is not known if it was purchased by King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia or if it was a gift or possibly an inheritance from someone.
Since her coming of age in 2000 Princess Madeleine has frequently worn the tiara, which may also be worn as a necklace, but Queen Silvia has also continued to wear it occasionally.
While the tiara appears to be of a rather young age, the earrings worn by Princess Madeleine for her weddings are very old. Apparently they belonged to Queen Lovisa Ulrika, the Prussian-born consort of King Adolf Fredrik, who died in 1782. They left Sweden when King Gustaf IV Adolf was deposed in 1809, and is known as “the Vasa earrings” as ex-Crown Prince Gustaf received the title Prince of Vasa from the Austrian emperor. His only child, Queen Carola of Saxony, apparently passed the earrings on to a great-granddaughter of Gustaf IV Adolf, Princess Victoria of Baden, who became Queen of Sweden through her marriage to King Gustaf V.
Princess Madeleine also wore a bracelet which seems to have belonged to Princess Lilian, her beloved great-aunt and substitute grandmother, who died in March this year. Crown Princess Victoria also chose to honour their great-aunt by wearing jewellery inherited from her, namely a delicate laurel wreath tiara which Queen Sophia presented to her granddaughter-in-law Margareta when she married the future Gustaf VI Adolf in 1905. She also wore a necklace, originally a stomacher, which is known to have belonged to Queen Josephina and which was frequently worn by Princess Lilian.