Tiara Tuesday: Boucheron Honeycomb Tiara

The tiara I just posted was from last week, my computer was being stupid and it wouldn’t post so, we have a double tiara day.

This tiara was made by Boucheron for the Hon. Mrs. Greville (a well-known society maven) in 1921 out of stones salvaged from another tiara. Having no heirs of her own, she left her considerable jewel collection to Queen Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother) when she died in 1942. King George VI was a little uncertain about accepting the jewels.

She had Cartier make it bigger, by adding a little variation to the top line and finishing it off with a marquis-shaped diamond in the center. A change for the better, if you ask me: it needed some pizazz to take it from "giant wall of diamonds" to "giant wall of diamonds with decorations on top".

The Boucheron was destined to become one of her favorites. Indeed, in the Queen Mother's later years, it was one of only two from her collection that she wore publicly.

When the Queen Mother died, her jewels passed to Queen Elizabeth as a sovereign to sovereign inheritance. The Queen has now doled this tiara out to the Duchess of Cornwall, which is a nice nod to the grandmother Prince Charles loved so much. She first wore it for her third tiara appearance, in 2006, and it's been the only one she's worn since.

I wasn't a big fan of this tiara until Camilla started wearing it. It does have a bit of a basket feel to it, and it's one of those pieces that's surprisingly modern for its time. The Queen Mother had a tendency to wear it alongside more traditional pieces, such as Queen Alexandra's pearl and diamond wedding necklace (center photo, Queen Mother collage above).

Tiara Tuesday: Oriental Circlet

Following the Diamond Jubilee celebrations – we have the Oriental Circlet.

Prince Albert made this tiara for Queen Victoria, this piece made by Garrard in 1853 for around £860. It's a big tiara: the original diadem consisted of more than 2,600 diamonds with opal accents, all set in gold. Opals were one of Albert's favourite stones, and after receiving this tiara Victoria commissioned an opal necklace, earrings, and brooch to go with. The opals have since been replaced with rubies (and you will accordingly sometimes see this referred to as the Indian Ruby Tiara or even just the Indian Tiara).

Many changes have occurred since the tiara was created. For the initial design, Victoria supplied around half of the diamonds from her existing collection. The Hanover diamonds were removed in 1858 and replaced by a mix of diamonds taken out of other royal jewels and new ones from Garrard.

Queen Victoria left this set to the Crown in her will, and when Queen Alexandra inherited it after Victoria's death she changed it again. Apparently believing opals to be unlucky, she replaced them with rubies from a necklace given to Queen Victoria by the ruler of Nepal. She also reduced the size of the tiara: there were originally 17 opals and arches, but only 11 rubies and corresponding arches exist on the piece today. For all the changes she made, the tiara doesn't seem to have been a favourite of Queen Alexandra - well, at least enough of a favourite to wear for portraits and the like - and the same goes for Queen Mary. It passed to Queen Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother) when her husband inherited the throne, and she finally made good use of the revised tiara.

Despite having multiple tiaras to choose from, the Queen Mother used only two in her later years. She often paired it with the magnificent set of huge rubies which was once set with opals, just like the tiara, and was also left to the Crown by Queen Victoria.When the Queen Mother died in March of 2002, the tiara passed to her daughter, Queen Elizabeth, along with the rest of her estate. This is one of the pieces that she technically could have asked for earlier - after all, it was left to the Crown, and she's been in charge of the Crown since 1952 - but she let it be, supposedly saying "Mummy will give them back."

Queen Elizabeth debuted the tiara during a state visit to Malta in 2005 - and we've not seen it publicly since (despite my fervent wishes that she'd swap in this one and swap out the Burmese Ruby Tiara in her regular tiara rota).

Wedding Wednesday: The Queen Mother’s Wedding Dress

 

HRH The Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

April 23, 1923

When Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married Prince Albert, the Duke of York, on April 23, 1923 at Westminster Abbey, she became one of the trendiest royal brides...well, ever.

Her gown was crafted by Madame Handley Seymour, a former court dressmaker for Queen Mary, but it certainly wasn't your typical court dress. The design followed the Coco Chanel-dictated trends of the time: dropped waists, silhouettes without much shape.

 

The gown is silk crepe moire embellished extensively with pearls and silver embroidery. The detail and weight of the decoration gives the dress an almost medieval feel. She went for a short train and a longer veil.

Her veil (loaned to her by Queen Mary) covered her head and fell cloak-like at her sides. She anchored it with a band of myrtle and a York rose on each side rather than a tiara. (Bridal tiaras in the royal family weren't so common back then.)

Since her gown was short-sleeved, she had a fur wrap to warm her up from the April weather.