The Fabergé Chamber – A new part of the Amalienborg Museum

If you’ll visit Copenhagen in the (near) future and love jewelry, you shouldn’t only visit Rosenborg Castle, but also Amalienborg Palace. In Christian VII’s Palace there is also a nice royal museum, and that one has been extended with a real Fabergé Chamber. The Chamber opened its doors on 8 February 2020 and on display is Russian jewellery from 1860-1917. There are also other items by the famous Russian jeweller Fabergé including a few wine collers and a champagne cooler of gilt silver, that was the golden wedding anniversary present of the children to King Christian IX and Queen Louise in 1892. There were lots of close ties between the Danish and Russian monarchies of course. Princess Dagmar of Denmark became Tsarina of Russia when she married Tsar Alexander III. Also Queen Alexandrine, the wife of King Christian X of Denmark, was a daughter of Grand Duchess Anastasia Michailovna. Also part of the Danish Crown Jewels are on display at the nex permanent exhibition.

Photo & Copyright: Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers

Excitingly also a special sapphire tiara is on display: Queen Alexandrine’s Russian Sapphire Tiara, that was sold at auction at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers on 30 November 2018 for DKK 2 million. It was sold by the countesses Josephine, Camilla and Feodora af Rosenborg, who had inherited it from their father Count Christian af Rosenborg, a son of Prince Knud and Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark. Princess Caroline-Mathilde (who died in 1995) had received the tiara at her marriage in 1933 from her new parents-in-law King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark née Duchess zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who had received it as a wedding present in 1898 from Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia. The tiara is attributed to C.E. Bolin in Saint-Petersburg and originally it was a so-called combination piece, where the different parts could be used individually. Caroline-Mathilde’s younger son Count Ingolf recalls that his mother used it both as a necklace and as a bandeau. She later had it changed to its present form.

The Fabergé Chamber was opened by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and her sister Princess Benedikte of Denmark on Friday 7 February 2020. Both Benedikte, Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes and Count Ingolf af Rosenborg have contributed to the exhibition. I hope to see it the next time I am in Copenhagen, although some items probably were already on display at the Fabergé exhibition in Kolding a few years ago.

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