Was designed and executed in 1913 by E. Wolff & Co. for the royal jewelers Garrards, who were commissioned by Queen Mary, the Queen consort of King George V, to create a tiara based on the design of one owned by her maternal grandmother Princess Augusta of Hesse, the Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Prince Adolphus, the Duke of Cambridge.
The Original Design and some detailing on the new Lover’s Knot.
The predominant neo-Gothic or Gothic-revival features in the Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara are the 19 arches and the incorporation of 19 pearl spikes and 19 diamond spikes rising above the surface of the tiara. The shape of the drop-shaped emeralds, somewhat resembling the Vesica Piscis, a symbol of Christian art in the Medieval period, may also be considered as a Gothic-revival feature in the tiara.
(Princess Augusta of Hesse, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Mary with upright pearls, Queen Mary without upright pearls)
When Princess Augusta, the eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, married Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Stretlitz in 1843, the Duchess of Cambridge, gave the original Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara as a gift to her daughter.
Princess Mary Adelaide, the second daughter of Prince Adolphus and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, married Francis, the Duke of Teck in 1866, and this marriage produced four children, a daughter who was the eldest followed by three sons. The daughter who was born in 1867, was Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, who married Prince George, the Duke of York, and second in line to the British Throne in 1893, a marriage that received the blessings of Queen Victoria, who was her godmother.
In 1913, Queen Mary commissioned the Crown Jewelers Messrs. Garrard & Co. to construct a tiara based on the design of the Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara, that was once owned by her maternal grandmother Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, the Duchess of Cambridge.
Queen Mary died in 1953 at the age of 85 years, just one year after the death of her son, King George V. In her will, she left the Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara to her granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth II later gave the Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara as a wedding gift to Princess Diana, at the time she married Prince Charles, the Price of Wales. The first official function for which Princess Diana wore the Cambridge Lover's Knot Tiara was the opening of the British Parliament in November 1981. However, after her divorce from the Prince of Wales the tiara was returned to Her Majesty the Queen.
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