Tiara Tuesday: Queen Elizabeth’s Tiaras *

Since it is Elizabeth and Philip’s 64th Wedding Anniversary let’s talk about the Tiaras Queen Liz has worn.

Brazil Parure

In 1953, the President and people of Brazil presented the Queen with the coronation gift of a necklace and matching pendant earrings of aquamarines and diamonds. It took a year to collect perfectly matched stones. The necklace consists of nine large oblong aquamarines with an even bigger aquamarine pendant drop. The Queen was so delighted with the gift that in 1957 she had a matching tiara made.The tiara is surmounted by three vertically set aquamarines. In August 1958 the Brazilian Government presented with the Queen with a bracelet of seven oblong aquamarines set in a cluster of diamonds and a square aquamarine and a diamond brooch.

Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara

Garrard was commissioned by Queen Mary in 1914 to create a copy of a tiara owned by her maternal grandmother Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel. The tiara was made using diamonds and pearls already in the Queen's possession. The tiara consists of 19 openwork diamond frames each with a large oriental pearl drop. Each arch is below a lovers knot bow each centred with a large brilliant. In Mary's will Queen Mary left the tiara to her granddaughter Elizabeth II. The Queen later gave it to Diana, Princess of Wales as a wedding present in 1981. She wore it often during her marriage however on her divorce from The Prince of Wales, it was returned to The Queen.

Queen Mary Fringe Tiara

 

This tiara was made for Queen Mary in 1919. It was made out of Diamonds that was taken from a necklace/tiara owned by Queen Victoria. The necklace/tiara was made from Collingwood & Co. as a wedding present for Queen Mary in 1893. In August 1936, Queen Mary gave it to Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother). Queen Elizabeth later loaned it to her daughter, Princess Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth II as "something borrowed" for her wedding in 1947. As Princess Elizabeth was getting dressed at Buckingham Palace before leaving for Westminster Abbey the tiara snapped. Luckily the court jeweller was standing by in case of emergency. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother later also loaned it to her granddaughter The Princess Anne for her marriage to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973.

The Burmese Ruby Tiara

The Burmese Ruby Tiara was ordered by Elizabeth II in 1973. The design is in the form of a wreath of red roses and like many other pieces in the collection, made by Garrard & Co. Clusters of rubies and gold form the centre of each flower while diamonds and silver form the petals. A total of 96 diamonds are set into the tiara. Both the rubies and the diamonds came from Elizabeth's private collection. The rubies were a wedding present by the Burmese people, after whom the tiara was named. The number of rubies represent the number of diseases that the people of Burma believe can affect the human body. The diamonds were also a wedding present by the Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar who at the time also possessed a vast jewellery collection.

The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara

The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara was a gift from the girls of Great Britain and Ireland to Queen Mary in 1893. The diamond tiara was purchased from Garrard, the London jeweller, by a committee. In 1947, Mary gave the tiara to her granddaughter, the future Elizabeth II, as a wedding present. Elizabeth II usually wore the tiara without the base or pearls, however in recent years the base has been seen to have been reattached.

The Russian Kokoshnik Tiara

The Russian Kokoshnik Tiara was presented to Princess Alexandra, Princess of Wales, in 1888 by Lady Salisbury on behalf of 365 peeresses of the United Kingdom. Alexandra had requested that the tiara be in the fashionable design of a Russian girl's headdress, a kokoshnik. She knew the design well from a similar tiara belonging to her sister Marie Feodorovna, the Empress of Russia. The tiara was made by Garrard Jewellers and supervised by Lady Salisbury. It is made up of 61 platinum bars and encrusted with 488 diamonds, the largest of which being 3.25 carats (0.65 g) each. Princess Alexandra wrote to her aunt, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz "The presents are quite magnificent. The ladies of society gave a lovely diamond spiked tiara".

The Vladimir Tiara

The Vladimir Tiara, sometimes referred to as the Diamond and Pearl Tiara, was purchased in 1921 by Queen Mary, who bought it from Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia. Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna, after her marriage to Prince Nicholas of Greece, known always as Princess Nicholas of Greece, had inherited it from her mother Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. The tiara had been smuggled out of Russia by a British diplomat during the 1917 revolution. Over the years Princess Nicholas of Greece sold various pieces of jewellery from her personal collection; as a refugee, she had to sell the pieces to support her family and various charities.
Queen Mary had the tiara adapted to accommodate the attachment of fifteen of the Cambridge cabochon emeralds. The original Teardrop pearls, originally in the Vladimir Tiara, could be replaced easily as an alternative to the emeralds. Elizabeth II inherited the piece directly from her grandmother. The Diamond and Pearl Tiara is almost exclusively worn with the Cambridge and Delhi Durbar Parure, which also features large emeralds. Elizabeth II wore this tiara for her official photograph as Queen of Canada, as none of the Commonwealth realms besides the United Kingdom has its own crown jewels.

UPDATE

Elizabeth has also worn the Sapphire Suite Tiara (left) and the Oriental Circlet Tiara (right).
Information: Wikipedia
Photos: Google Search (Key Words: "Brazilian Aquamarine Tiara",