A queen in ivory white, a guest in the boldest purple of the season, and a pale green ceramic dish glowing in its glass case – Queen Silvia turned a Stockholm museum morning into the most charming royal picture of the week on Monday, October 19, when she showed Mrs Jane Ittogi Shanmugaratnam, wife of Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Nationalmuseum and Beckmans College of Design.

A Story by Award Winning Managing Editor His Highness Dr. Prince Mario-Max zu Schaumburg-Lippe.

Photo: Sara Friberg/Kungl. Hovstaterna

Ceramics across borders, smiles across the case

At the Nationalmuseum the two women were shown „Keramik over granser“ – Ceramics Across Borders – with works by Wilhelm Kage, the Swedish master of Gustavsberg porcelain, and Shoji Hamada, the Japanese potter whose folk-craft stoneware conquered the world. The Royal Court photograph by Sara Friberg shows why the exhibition was the perfect choice: the Queen, pearl necklace and veiled black-and-white headband over an ivory outfit, beams beside her guest, who answered the occasion in vivid purple with a black velvet bow. Between two potters who never shared a language, the Queen and Mrs Tharman clearly had plenty to talk about.

Then came the future. At Beckmans College of Design on Lidingo, students of fashion, product design and visual communication presented their work – the next generation of Swedish design, showing its ideas to a queen who has championed Swedish culture for decades. Minister Parisa Liljestrand represented the government. Fashion lovers here have seen this family’s eye for a strong look before, from a Ukrainian label stepping into its global era to a New York atelier opening that stopped the season – and Monday in Stockholm belonged in exactly that company.

There is a deeper craft story inside the pairing. Kage spent three decades at Gustavsberg turning everyday Swedish tableware into design classics, proof that beauty belongs on ordinary tables and not only in palaces. Hamada, working from his kilns in Mashiko, made the opposite journey to the same truth, elevating humble folk pottery until museums queued for it. An exhibition that puts the two side by side argues that design is a borderless language – which is precisely the argument a design school makes every term. Beckmans has trained Swedish fashion and design talent for generations, and its students on Monday were not showing exercises. They were showing the Queen of Sweden, and a guest who had flown across the world, what Swedish creativity intends to do next.

Koenigin Silvia zeigt Singapurs First Lady die Keramik-Schätze von Stockholm

Was fuer ein Auftritt im Nationalmuseum! Koenigin Silvia ganz in Elfenbein-Weiss, mit Perlenkette, Blumenbrosche und elegantem Schleier-Haarreif – und neben ihr Jane Ittogi Shanmugaratnam, die Ehefrau von Singapurs Praesidenten Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in leuchtendem Lila mit schwarzer Samtschleife. Die beiden Damen strahlten um die Wette, und zwischen ihnen, in der Glasvitrine, leuchtete eine Keramikschale in zartem Gruen.

Gezeigt wurde die Ausstellung „Keramik ueber Grenzen“ mit Werken von Wilhelm Kage, dem schwedischen Keramik-Meister der Porzellanfabrik Gustavsberg, und Shoji Hamada, dem japanischen Toepfer, dessen Volkskunst-Steinzeug die Welt eroberte. Zwei Meister, zwei Laender, eine gemeinsame Sprache: schoene Dinge, von Hand gemacht. Da brauchte es keine grossen Reden – die Keramik sprach fuer sich.

Danach ging es weiter zur Designhochschule Beckmans auf Lidingoe. Dort zeigten Studierende der Studiengaenge Mode, Produktdesign und Visuelle Kommunikation ihre Arbeiten – Schwedens Design-Zukunft, praesentiert vor einer Koenigin. Regierungsvertreterin war Ministerin Parisa Liljestrand. Ein Vormittag ganz nach dem Geschmack der Koenigin: erst die grossen Meister, dann der Nachwuchs. Stockholm, so geht Stil!

Der Autor ist Award Winning Hollywood Managing-Journalist Seine Hoheit und Exzellenz Dr.iur. Mag.iur. PRINZ MARIO-MAX ZU SCHAUMBURG-LIPPE, MAS, LL.M.

Prinz Mario-Max ist der Sohn der hochfürstlichen Würdenträger Seine Hoheit Dr. h. c. Prinz Waldemar zu Schaumburg-Lippe und Ihrer Hoheit Dr. Prinzessin Antonia zu Schaumburg-Lippe. Seine Großmutter ist Ihre Königliche Hoheit Prinzessin Feodora von Dänemark. Die Familie ist die königlich-dänische Nachoder Linie der Prinzen zu Schaumburg-Lippe, die Gründerfamilie von Hamburg, Lübeck und Kiel.

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Also published on:

• News Today World – https://newstodayworld.org/breaking-news/2026/10/19/prince-mario-max-schaumburg-lippe-queen-silvia-and-mrs-tharman-let-ceramics-do-the-talking-at-stockholms-nationalmuseum/
• Zeitblatt – https://zeitblatt.com/queen-silvia-in-ivory-mrs-tharman-in-purple-a-museum-morning-of-ceramics-and-young-design-in-stockholm/
• Mario Max Magazine – https://mariomaxmagazine.com/a-museum-morning-in-ivory-and-purple-queen-silvia-welcomes-mrs-tharman-with-cera/
• Fashion Weeks – https://fashionweeks.us/ivory-versus-purple-kage-versus-hamada-queen-silvia-turns-a-museum-visit-into-a/
• Schaumburg Post – https://schaumburgpost.com/purple-wins-ivory-glows-queen-silvia-and-mrs-tharman-steal-the-show-at-the-ceram/
• Revista Minutos – https://revistaminutos.com/la-reina-silvia-y-la-se-ora-shanmugaratnam-celebran-la-cer-mica-y-el-dise-o-jove/
• Le Miroir Français – https://lemiroirfrancais.com/la-reine-silvia-fait-dialoguer-kage-hamada-et-la-jeune-cr-ation-suedoise-stockho/