Swedish Wedding Crown

Description Although crowns are customarily associated with royalty, wedding crowns in Scandinavia were worn by brides of all social strata. They were owned by the bride's parish and loaned for the occasaion. Wedding crowns were richly decorated with emblems of conjugal love: this example includes carnations, associated with enduring marriage because their fragrance outlasts their blossoms, dangling linden leaves, which represent fertility in Nordic literature, and angels, Christian figures that allude to the eternal and spiritual qualities of marriage. The crown itself resembles that worn by Mary, Queen of Heaven.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
10/19/1978	Examination	examined for condition

Exhibitions

• Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979-1980.
• Objects of Adornment: Five Thousand Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 1984-1987.
• Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery and the Zucker Family Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987.
• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2006-2009.
• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry. El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso. 2010.

Provenance Ruth Blumka, New York, November 1978 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1978, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase, 1978