Yesterday, the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria. To keep the festivities rolling, today we have a look at some of the tiaras from her remarkable jewelry collection.
Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe Tiara
Queen Victoria received this versatile diamond fringe from her aunt, Queen Adelaide, in 1837. The piece was able to be worn either as a tiara or a necklace, and Victoria is featured sporting it as a tiara in several early illustrations from her reign. The fringe remains with the main line of the royal family today, though it has been in a necklace setting since 1936.
This petite diamond and sapphire diadem was designed by Prince Albert and made by Joseph Kitching in the early 1840s. In 1842, Queen Victoria famously wore it in a portrait by Winterhalter. It was one of the rare pieces of jewelry with colored gemstones that she continued to wear during her widowhood. Today, the tiara is on public display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
This tiara was originally a simple diamond and ruby bandeau, as pictured above in an 1855 painting of Queen Victoria. In 1860, it was remodeled as a strawberry leaf tiara. Victoria gave it to her daughter, Princess Beatrice, as a wedding present in 1885, and it was almost certainly later sold by one of her descendants.
Prince Albert designed this tiara for Queen Victoria in 1845, and she was painted in the diadem and its coordinating parure more than once. The jewels ended up with Victoria’s Fife descendants, and the tiara is now on public display at Kensington Palace.
This Mughal-inspired tiara was designed by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria after the Great Exhibition and made by Garrard. The diamond sparkler was originally set with opals, which were later replaced with rubies by Queen Alexandra. The tiara is presently owned by King Charles III.
The Sunray Fringe Tiara
This teeny diamond fringe tiara was worn by Queen Victoria late in her life. After Princess Beatrice inherited it, she combined it with a diamond bandeau to make a larger “frankentiara.” The current whereabouts of the tiara are unfortunately unknown.
The Pearl and Diamond Tiara
This sparkler was given to Queen Victoria by the Aga Khan, and then later passed on to her daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Connaught. She posed for several portraits in the tiara taken by Lafayette at the turn of the twentieth century, but its current status is unknown.
This unique diadem was given to Queen Victoria in 1838 by Sayyid Saïd, the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. She later had it altered by Kitching & Abud based on design plans by Prince Albert. Eventually, Victoria passed the tiara along to her daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Albany. In 1924, King George V had it placed in the Indian Room at Buckingham Palace. Today the jewel is on display at Windsor Castle, where it stands as a stunning example of jewelry design.
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