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Posted by John R
on May 6, 2025, 5:14 am, in reply to "Re: Dutch coronation sapphire tiara - Margriet "
I think the quality / clarity of both the footage and the stones has more to do with it than a thorough cleaning although that was certainly done. The court jewellers take very good care of the jewels and they keep them sparkling at all times, rest assured. The cornflower blue sapphires from Sri Lanka are indeed stunning. These very high quality stones were sourced in the 1880s by some of the best jewellers in the world and costed Willem III a small fortune. 20 years later more sapphires were sourced for the incredible Wedding Gift Parure for Queen Wilhelmina. Also in the collection are some of Queen Anna Palovna's sapphires which are a bit darker, but much larger! 
Previous Message
I liked the kokoshnik modification, and I also appreciated that on inauguration day that tiara appeared to have undergone a serious deep cleaning because the stones and metal were absolutely sparkling under the lights in the hall. I’d never see the stones look that blue! Previous Message
Interesting capture indeed. I have had a copy of this photo for many years. The only occasion Margriet ever wore this tiara and without the central plume possibly in an attempt to make it a bit more modest or because something went wrong. In any case it looks bad. Also Maxima’s / Steltman’s attempt to create o more kokoshnik style tiara by temoving the central plume and replace it with one additional diamond does not create a 100% balanced configuration but the idea was good. Previous Message
Never seen this photo before!
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