This romantic royal tiara features rare vivid red rubies set among an olive wreath motif of white diamonds. It is said that each stone was accumulated over time, the gift of a ruby being given for every wedding anniversary from King George I of Greece to his wife, Queen Olga. George was only 17 years old when, in 1863, he was elected King of the new dynasty by the Greek National Assembly and in the inaugural year of his reign he had visited the court of Tsar Alexander II and met his future bride, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Alexander’s niece. Five years later when she reached the age of 16 they married at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.
Her collection of sentimental rubies were eventually created into the tiara along with matching earrings, brooches and a necklace, the parure can be seen in official portraits of the time. King George and Queen Olga had eight children and 21 grandchildren. Their eldest son became King Constantine I of Greece and her fourth son, Prince Andrew, married Princess Alice of Battenberg,
mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II.
In March 1913, despite escalating social unrest, King George took a park walk with minimal security and was shot in the back at close range. After her husband’s assassination, Olga left Greece and returned to live in her native Russia only to face further unrest. In the years that followed Olga not only survived the Bolshevik Revolution, she also managed to smuggle out much of her jewellery disguised as a pile of books.
After her death in 1926, the Ruby Wreath Tiara passed to Olga’s third son Prince Nicholas and then to his daughters. His eldest, Princess Olga of Yugoslavia can be seen in the diadem at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937. Briefly in the hands of other family members, the tiara was returned to the fold in 1964 as a wedding gift to King Constantine II of Greece upon his marriage to Queen Anne-Marie. Greece is now a parliamentary republic but the storybook jewels remain in the hands of the regal House.
The precious rubies were most recently spotted in 2022 when the parure was worn by Anne-Marie in Copenhagen at the Golden Jubilee gala held in honour of her sister, Queen Margrethe II. It was a celebration of her fifty year reign, shortly before the surprise abdication in January 2024.
