Regalia of Sweden

Sweden's Royal Regalia are kept deep in the vaults of the Royal Treasury (Swedish: Skattkammaren), underneath the , in a museum which is open to the public. The crowns and coronets have not been worn by Swedish royalty since 1907, but they are still displayed at weddings, christenings and funerals. Until 1974 the crown jewels were also displayed at the solemn opening of the Riksdag.

Among the oldest priceless objects are the sword of Gustav Vasa and the crown, orb, sceptre and key of King Erik XIV.

The Crown of Eric XIV, made in Stockholm in 1561 by Flemish goldsmith Cornelius ver Welden, is typical of the Renaissance style of jewelry of his time. Originally his crown bore four pairs of the letter 'E' and 'R', the initials of the Latin form of his name, "Ericus Rex", in green enamel, each pair being on either side of the central stones on the front, sides and back of the circlet. When he was deposed by his brother, John III, John had each of these letters covered with identical cartouches each set with two pearls. The Swedish monarchs of the Houses of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, of Hesse and of Holstein-Gottorp preferred to use Queen Christina's crown rather than that of Eric XIV; however, the House of Bernadotte choose to use Eric's crown. However, they replaced the original orb and cross at the top of the crown with a new large orb enameled blue with gold star and set with diamond and with a cross of ten diamonds. They also replaced the original pearls on the top of the eight large ornaments on the circlet with diamonds and replacing the pearl cartouches with eight diamond rosettes moved the circlet 45 degrees. This is the form the crown has in the portrait of Oscar II painted by Oscar Björck. In the early twentieth century this orb and cross and these diamond rosettes were removed and the crown restored to essentially the form it had under John III.

Eric also had a scepter, an orb and a key made for his coronation. This key is an item found only in the Swedish regalia (although a pair of gold and silver keys also were formerly presented to a new pope at his coronation). His scepter was made by Hans Heiderick in 1561 and is of gold, enameled and set with diamonds, rubies and sapphires and still used as the monarch's scepter. It originally was surmounted by a large round sapphire at the top enclosed by two intersecting rows of pearls. This sapphire was lost at the baptism of Gustav IV Adolf and was replaced by the present dark blue enamelled orb in 1780. The orb is also of gold and is unique among European regalia in that it is engraved and enamelled with a map of the earth according to the cartography current at the time it was made. At the top of the orb is a smaller orb in blue enamel and covered with stars, above which is a small cross formed of a table cut diamond surrounded by three pearls. The orb was made by Cornelius ver Weiden and probably engraved by Franz Beijer in Antwerp in 1568. The present blue enamel dates from 1751 and replaces the original black enamel that was badly damaged at the coronation of Charles XI. The original model used for the engraving is not known, but the engraver placed the northern hemisphere upside down, while placing the names where they would have been if the map were right side up.

...
Wikipedia