We talked briefly earlier about this sparkler from the collection of our Magpie of the Month, Queen Sofia of Spain, but it’s such an interesting piece that it’s definitely worth a fuller discussion of its history. The diamond loop tiara made by Cartier for a Habsburg queen has also been a bridal tiara for one branch of the Spanish royal family; today, it’s back in the hands of the (former) monarch’s wife.

For a royal family that has faced serious upheaval in the last century, the Borbóns of Spain have managed to hang on to some serious heirloom tiaras. That’s been possible in part because the family has largely maintained personal possession of their jewels rather than consigning them to an official collection of crown jewels. It also means that many tiaras, like the loop tiara, meandered a bit through the family before arriving in the hands of its current owners.

The tiara, which is made of diamonds and pearls set in platinum, was originally made by Cartier for a nineteenth-century Spanish queen: Maria Cristina, the Austrian-born wife of King Alfonso XII. When Alfonso died, Maria Cristina was pregnant with the future King Alfonso XIII. Because of this, she was not only a queen consort but also a queen regent, as she ruled the country from her husband’s death until their son turned sixteen.

Alfonso XIII received the Cartier tiara from his mother. In 1935, he gave the sparkler to his new daughter-in-law, Princess María Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, when she married his third son, Infante Juan. Juan and María Mercedes would have been the king and queen of Spain had the monarchy not been abolished in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. When Franco decided to restore the monarchy on his death, he passed over Juan in favor of his son, Juan Carlos. Juan eventually did formally relinquish his claim on the throne, but only two years after his son had become king; in turn, Juan Carlos made his father the Count of Barcelona, which was traditionally a title held by Spanish kings. (He also buried his father under the title of Juan III with the full honors of a king of Spain.)

Although she loaned the piece to her daughter-in-law, Sofia, for the ’70s-era Persepolis celebrations in Tehran, María Mercedes retained the tiara even after the monarchy was restored in 1975. (She relinquished another tiara, which was specifically earmarked for Spanish queens, to the new Queen Sofia that year — but more on that later.) In 1967, she had loaned the piece to her daughter, Infanta Pilar, to wear at her wedding; she also loaned the tiara to her granddaughter, Pilar’s daughter Simoneta, when she married in 1990.

When María Mercedes died in 2000, Juan Carlos was able to obtain the tiara. Whether he inherited it or purchased it from another member of the family, perhaps Pilar, hasn’t really been made clear. Given the six years that elapsed between the Countess of Barcelona’s death and Queen Sofia’s first appearance in the tiara afterward (at a 2006 state banquet in Norway), it wouldn’t surprise me if there were some deals being done. Today, the tiara is worn by Queen Sofia, returning it to the main line of the royal family. Because of its extensive history within the Spanish royal family, I wouldn’t be surprised if this tiara is eventually made a part of the collection of the new Spanish queen, Letizia.

Although some of the jewels regularly worn by Queen Sofia of Spain will be passed to her daughter-in-law, Letizia, when the abdication of King Juan Carlos is completed, most of the tiaras worn regularly by Sofia are her own personal property. One of the sparklers that she will retain is her diamond floral tiara.

For many years, it was assumed that this tiara was much newer than it appeared to be. Conventional wisdom about the piece said that it had been made in 1962 at the request of the then-ruler of Spain, Francisco Franco, who gave it as a gift to Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark on her marriage to Prince Juan Carlos of Spain. The jewelry house of Mellerio dits Meller was often put forward as a possible maker of the piece.

However, the Spanish court has confirmed that Franco purchased an antique piece for Sofia rather than commissioning a new one. The tiara was made in 1879 by a British jewelry firm, J.P. Collins, for King Alfonso XII of Spain. The piece was a gift for his new bride, Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria. The tiara stayed with the family for more than half a century, but when they went into exile in the 1930s, it was sold. Franco was later able to acquire the piece, and his gift for the new Spanish princess managed to reunite a lost royal tiara with its original owners.

The relationship between Franco and the future King Juan Carlos was complicated to say the least, but the tiara wasn’t exactly just from him — it was a gift to the bride from Franco on behalf of the people of Spain. It’s a convertible piece, able to be worn as a necklace or broken up into a series of brooches. Since the monarchy’s reestablishment in Spain, the tiara has been worn by all of the senior royal ladies: Queen Sofia, Princess Letizia, Infanta Elena, and Infanta Cristina, who even wore the sparkler on her wedding day in 1997 (pictured above).

In recent years, Letizia has worn the tiara frequently, including for a major appearance: the ceremonies for the inauguration of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (pictured above). It will be very interesting to see if Queen Sofia continues to make her tiara collection available to her daughter-in-law after the abdication; I imagine she will indeed continue to share many of the lovely tiaras that she owns with the new queen.

Note: After I wrote this post, Letizia wore the diamond floral tiara for her last state banquet as Princess of Asturias. Queen Sofia wore (quite possibly for the very last time) “La Buena,” the fleur-de-lys tiara that is reserved for the Spanish queen, as well as a diamond necklace and earrings that will also likely be transferred to Letizia after the abdication.