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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Queen Alexandra’s Wedding Gift Tiara

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For many years, one of the biggest tiara mysteries surrounding the British royal family had to do with a showstopper tiara associated with one of the family’s matriarchs, Queen Alexandra. But in recent years, much more has been revealed about the piece, which Alexandra received as a wedding gift, and its eventual fate.

Most of you will probably be familiar with the tiara under its commonly-used name: the Rundell Tiara. For quite a long time, the tiara was presumably referred to as such because it was believed to have been made by Rundell & Bridge. But while that jewelry house did supply pieces to the British royals, this tiara was made by another familiar name: Garrard. While the tiara was an all-diamond affair, it was a part of a larger diamond and pearl parure made by the company in 1862. The set included the tiara, a necklace, a brooch, and a pair of earrings. Alexandra wore the necklace, earrings, and brooch on her wedding day (but not the tiara — she wore flowers in her hair instead, which you can see in the portrait above).

The parure was commissioned by the future Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, for his future bride, Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The tiara was a versatile piece. Three rows of diamonds made up a solid base, upon which were mounted a series of interchangeable elements. Alexandra commonly wore the tiara with large diamond fleur-de-lys elements interspersed with intricate interlocking diamond “knots.” However, the tiara could also be worn without those bridge elements or with diamond stars worn in place of each of the fleur-de-lys.

Alexandra was the only member of the family ever photographed in her tiara. For some time, Windsor watchers hoped that the wedding gift tiara was simply gathering dust in the jewelry vaults and might someday make a reappearance in some form. But with the publication in 2012 of Hugh Roberts’s important book, The Queen’s Diamonds, the fate of the tiara has been made clear. Roberts reports that although Alexandra did not have a will when she died in 1925, she did indicate items of jewelry that she wished to leave to each of her daughters. The Garrard tiara was inherited by Princess Victoria, Alexandra’s second daughter. And unfortunately, Roberts also notes simply that the tiara was “disposed of” by Toria at some point.

But while hopes to see the wedding gift tiara reappear have ultimately been dashed, the other parts of Alexandra’s diamond and pearl parure remain securely today in the possession of Elizabeth II. The brooch, necklace, and earrings were all inherited by Queen Mary on Alexandra’s death. Mary gave the necklace to her daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, and the current queen inherited that piece from her mother in 2002. The brooch and the earrings passed directly from Mary to her granddaughter in 1953.

Saturday Sparkler: Queen Rania’s Boucheron Bracelet Tiara

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We talk about lots of tiaras on this blog that can be converted into other pieces of jewelry. Generally, tiaras are transformable into necklaces or brooches. But today’s small tiara is one of the few sparklers that can be worn as either a tiara or a bracelet.

The piece, which was made in 2008 by Boucheron, belongs to one of the most stunning queens in the world: Queen Rania of Jordan. Rania has more substantial tiaras in her collection (most notably, an unusual and gorgeous tiara that incorporates Arabic script into its design), but this smaller, convertible diadem has been brought out for some big occasions. In 2008, she made her first appearance in the piece at a banquet during a state visit to Brunei. Two years later, she chose it for the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden in Stockholm.

In 2009, Rania wore the tiara for an even more important event for Jordan: the tenth anniversary celebrations of her husband’s accession to the throne. The public got a chance to see the tiara when she and Abdullah rode in an open-topped car through the streets of Amman. But while she wore a different tiara at the coronation — the tiara made by Cartier for Queen Alia, which was borrowed then from Princess Haya — Rania wore the same Elie Saab gown in 2009 as she had ten years earlier.

Simple and sleek, the bracelet tiara may be tiny, but in a way it complements Rania’s elegant, classic style better than more elaborate pieces would. Some have suggested that teeny tiaras like this don’t pack a major style punch, and that may be true, but I’d certainly rather see a small tiara than no tiara at all! I do, however, wish that this piece were a bit longer on the sides, as it stops a bit short on Rania’s head. Maybe a few extra diamonds would do the trick?

Saturday Sparkler: The Connaught Fringe Tiara

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The Duchess of Connaught wears her fringe tiara, 1902 [1]

There are many convertible diamond fringe tiaras in royal vaults today, but the fringe tiara of the Connaught family has a long royal history — longer than that of many other tiaras in the collections of various British royals.

Louise Margaret [2]

The first recorded owner of this diamond fringe is the Duchess of Kent, mother of Queen Victoria; she left the tiara to the queen. In 1879, Victoria gave the tiara as a wedding present to her new daughter-in-law, Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia, the new of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. Princess Louise wore the fringe as a necklace at her wedding, opting to wear a wreath of flowers on her head instead of a tiara (see the photograph at left). She donned the piece as a tiara, however, for one of the most important royal occasions of the early twentieth century: the 1902 coronation of her brother- and sister-in-law, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (see the photograph above). On that occasion, she placed the fringe atop a larger jeweled base to give it additional height, likely to complement the height of her coronet (which you can see with the tiara in this picture postcard — it also features her daughters, Margaret and Patricia).

From Louise Margaret, the tiara was passed to her younger daughter, Princess Patricia of Connaught (who renounced her titles on her marriage to a commoner, becoming Lady Patricia Ramsay). It’s safe to say that Louise’s elder daughter wasn’t much in need of family tiaras to wear. Margaret had married the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and had access to the Bernadotte jewel collection (and the glittering wedding presents she had received in 1905).

Lady Patricia wore the fringe tiara at the 1937 coronation of King George VI; you can see it in this portrait of Patricia with her niece, then Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark, and Ingrid’s husband, the future King Frederik IX. From that point, however, we lose sight of the piece. It was apparently not included in the estate auction of her jewels in 1974. Perhaps it remains with the family today? [3]

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped and edited version of an image in the public domain; source here.
2. Cropped version of an image in the public domain; source here.
3. A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in March 2013.