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| Queen Juliana |
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| Queen Beatrix (2); Princess Irene (2); Princess Margriet (2) |
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| Princess Maxima |
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| The Parure |
With the end of the Diamond Jubilee, we may as well have a diamond tiara.This would have to be my favourite diamond tiara, need to explain? Let’s get into the diamond tiara magic!
This is one of the many wedding present to the future Queen Mary that she received in 1893. The tiara was given to Mary by a committee that was chaired by Lady Eve Greville. The committee raised over £5,000 and bought the tiara from Garrard, after they donated the rest of the money to charities.
The tiara is designed by festoons and scrolls set on a bandeau of round and lozenge-shaped diamonds. It was topped with nine large pearl finals (left), originally. In 1914, Mary took them off, she replaced them with simpler diamond collets, she also removed the bandeau.
1947, Mary gave this tiara to her granddaughter as a wedding present. Elizabeth is said to call this tiara “Granny’s tiara”. As mentioned in Diana’s Jewels. Right after the wedding, with any given tiara occasion, she wore it. The tiara became a frequent worn piece by the Princess.
It is said that Elizabeth didn’t know there was a bandeau to the tiara until after Mary’s death in 1953. Elizabeth added the Bandeau to the originally tiara in 1969.
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).
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).
The Queen received the rubies from the people of Burma as a Coronation gift. She sent the rubies to Garrad’s to create a new tiara in 1973. She selected a design where the rubies were arranged in clusters like the Rose Of England surrounded by diamonds. The Queen wears the crown often with her many ruby necklaces and bracelets. Since the passing of the Queen Mother, she has worn the magnificent ruby necklace, The State Rubies, left to the Crown by Queen Victoria.
Diamond Jubilee Week has started here! And we kick the weeks off with Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara:
The Royal Collection tells a different story, and since they are the authorities, I'm buying their version of the tale. They state that Queen Mary had the piece made in 1919 from a necklace she received from Queen Victoria as a wedding present. They also dispel the Hanoverian myth by specifying that Victoria bought the necklace from Collingwood & Co. jewelers in 1893.
According to the Royal Collection, it was given to Queen Elizabeth in 1936.
Elizabeth lent it to her namesake daughter for its history-making appearance atop the bridal veil. There was also a story about the wedding tiara. Before the wedding ceremony, the hair snapped, yes, snapped. Luckily Buckingham Palace had an replacement.
And then she lent it out again to her granddaughter, Princess Anne, for another bridal appearance.
Apart from these weddings, this piece remained out of the public eye for decades as the Queen Mother seemed to prefer two of her other tiaras for her own use in her later years. But then, in a thoroughly uncharacteristic move, Queen Elizabeth brought it out after the Queen Mother's death.
This also, was my choice of wedding tiara of Zara Phillips who married Mike Tindall on July 30, 2011 but, went for the Meander Tiara.
On May 6, 1960; the late-Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
Prior to Margaret and Antony’s engagement, the tiara was acquired for her. Many say it was selected by Margaret and bought by the Queen or the Queen Mum. Although, many thought that it was Margaret who bought it herself. The tiara was made by Garrard for Florence, Lady Poltimore who was the wife of the second Baron Poltimore. The Tiara was auctioned by the fourth Baron Poltimore in 1959.
The tiara is an all-diamond set in gold and silver in which clusters of cushion-shaped and old-cut diamonds are set amongst scroll motifs topped with diamonds. It has a maximum diameter of 19.2 centimeters. And it is a convertible piece, breaking down into a necklace and a set of 11 brooches. In the close up view of the tiara, you can just see the fittings at the back of the tiara which release to allow it to come off of its frame.
The place that Margaret wore the tiara most notably was at her wedding in 1960, ever since her death she wore it. Sadly, the tiara was auctioned off at Christie’s in 2006. Her children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto put not only the tiara but some other jewels. The estimated cost for the tiara was £150,000 - £200,000. But since it was worn by Royalty the cost was much higher, £926,400 ($1,704,576).
Many thought why didn’t the Queen buy it? Well, the queen had many tiaras that she wasn’t wear (ex: Sapphire Suite Tiara) and adding another tiara which probably wouldn’t come out wouldn’t be to smart.
When, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex married Sophie Rhys-Jones on June 19, 1999 a big tiara mystery started. The Tiara or any parts of the tiara were seen before. (Minus the diamonds.)
During the time that Edward and Sophie just married it was reported that her diamond tiara made out of four open scrollwork motifs (but they reported 3) came from the Queen’s private collection and designed and remodeled by the Crown Jeweller, Garrard.
The place where the diamonds and parts came from were a mystery. Plenty of theories have been said over the years (a lot of talk over tiara, wow). The 4 parts are actually from four detachable antemions from Queen Victoria’s regal circlet. (below)
If you look in the lid you can see the 4 parts of the tiara. Many people have drawn lines between the history behind the Jewels the Queen has given to her daughters-in-law. Diana, Princess of Wales got the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara. Sarah, Duchess of York was given her wedding tiara. And we all know those didn’t end well…
The tiara has been given hate. (It’s just a tiara, gosh.) This tiara is Sophie’s go to tiara, wearing it to royal weddings and galas. She wore the tiara to Mette-Marit and Haakon, Märtha Louise and Ari, Mary and Frederik, Victoria and Daniel, Charlene and Albert. She although has worn other tiaras too:
The Aquamarine Tiara which I am sure was bought. And the Floral Button tiara was a loan at Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson’s Wedding.
