Posted by Stig on January 7, 2012, 11:29 am, in reply to "Re: an old elephant"
Nellie, the elephant in your photo is a quite special one (diamonds bigger than normal), and it is reserved for the King (Queen) of Denmark. As far as I understand, it is only used on those rare occasions where the order is worn in a chain (as seen here):
I think Queen Margrethe has another more normal elephant "for daily use", i.e. when it's worn with the blue sash. I can't find a photo to confirm this - but maybe a challenge for Tamara? This "normal" elephant did earlier belong to Margrethe's grandfather Christian X.
Because the elephant in Nellie's photo is "in its own league", it might well be worth more than Queen Paola's. But that's just my guess. I don't know why Paola was lucky to get the most valuable of the "normal" stock, but probably because it was one of few available elephants at the time she received the order. Besides, I think the more precious of the elephants are given to royalty rather than presidents.
Actually Queen Margrethe has a third (small) elephant. It sits in a brooch that her father had made to her in 1958. She wears it when she receives people in audience:
With the Order of the Elephant comes also a star-shaped badge. Again, the Queen has two different at her disposal - a big one for special occasions and a smaller one for other occasions. You can see the difference in these two photos:
Trivia: The elephant is made of gold covered with white enamel. It cosists of 15 different parts. New elephants are still made on rare occasions, but they are terribly expensive. In 1992, the price for a new one was no less than 700.000-800.000 Danish kroner ($ 117,000-134,000) - so no wonder it has to be returned to the royal court after someone has died.