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| Click image to enlarge. Swedish Bridal Crown Silver Gilt 1750-1870 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
While we tend to treat each bride as a queen on the day of her wedding, Scandinavian brides truly looked the part, wearing bridal crowns which were based on medieval originals made of heavy, gilt silver.
Until very recently, in Sweden, all brides wore some kind of special headdress either a crown or tiara. Traditionally, gilded silver crowns were worn particularly in the east of the country, while, in the rest of the country, the crowns were sometimes made of cloth which was ornately decorated with ribbons, beads, and metallic lace. For centuries, swedish bridal crowns were full-size, however, during the Eighteenth Century, these headpieces became smaller, and were worn on the top of the head. Since most of these crowns were quite costly and elaborate, the bride often would hire or rent a crown. Only the wealthiest families could provide a crown for a bride which she could keep. These were often passed on through generations.
Here’s such a crown. This small, silver-gilt bridal crown is comprised of six upright openwork sections which have visual roots in the style of the renaissance. These sections are joined at the top by a ring of silver-gilt wire, with applied winged angels’ heads. The band at the base is decorated with pyramidal points and more winged angels’ heads in silver and the whole of it is hung with pendants. It was made between 1750 and 1870.
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