The Oriental Circlet (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Prince Albert, who is steaming up the screen right now on Victoria, was kind of a Victorian Renaissance man, if you will. He loved design, and Queen Victoria was the lucky beneficiary of his jewelry design efforts. Today, we’re looking at the four tiaras that Albert designed for his wife during their marriage.

Queen Victoria wears the Sapphire Coronet

The Sapphire Coronet: This petite diamond and sapphire coronet was designed by Albert and made by it was made by Joseph Kitching in 1842 for the price of £415. Victoria was painted in the coronet by Winterhalter the same year. The piece stayed with the main branch of the royal family until 1922, when King George V gave it to his daughter, Princess Mary. Her descendants kept the piece until a few years ago, and it was recently part of a bit of drama over an attempted foreign sale. (Much more over here!)

Queen Victoria wears the Emerald and Diamond Tiara

The Emerald and Diamond Tiara: In 1845, Albert designed this diamond and emerald tiara, which was made by Joseph Kitching for around a thousand pounds. Victoria was painted in the piece twice, but at some point, it ended up with the descendants of her daughter, Princess Louise. The tiara was included in Geoffrey Munn’s 2001 tiara book, but its current whereabouts are unknown. (More details over here!)

Queen Victoria wears the original, smaller version of the Ruby Strawberry Leaf Tiara

The Ruby Strawberry Leaf Tiara: This tiara, with its fashionable Victorian strawberry-leaf motifs, was originally a small diamond and ruby bandeau. It was made by Joseph Kitching, apparently with Albert’s design input, around 1844. The piece was later altered to make it taller, and a second, all-diamond version was commissioned for his daughter, Princess Alice. After Albert’s death, Victoria had at least one important outing in the tiara; she wore it for the wedding of her daughter, Princess Louise, in 1871. She gave the sparkler to her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, in 1885. Her descendants (including Queen Ena of Spain) wore and owned the tiara for years, but it seems likely that it was eventually sold. (More over here!)

Queen Victoria wears the Oriental Circlet in its original opal setting

The Oriental Circlet: One of the most beautiful tiaras designed by Albert is this diamond circlet, which was originally set with opals, one of his favorite gemstones. Inspired by the Indian jewelry from the Great Exhibition, Albert reflected Mughal arches in the diadem’s design. The tiara was made in 1853 by Garrard; in 1858, after the settlement of the Hanoverian claim, the piece was remade to remove any diamonds that came from Queen Charlotte. In her will, Victoria designated the circlet as an “heirloom of the crown,” and it has been with the main line of the royal family ever since. Queen Alexandra had the opals removed and replaced with rubies, and the piece remains in that form today. (Much more over here!)

Queen Victoria is depicted wearing Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe in a detail of Winterhalter’s The First of May 1851 (Wikimedia Commons)

I’m going to let all of you in on a little secret: tonight on Victoria (currently airing on PBS here in America), we’re finally going to see Queen Victoria wearing a tiara based on one she really owned and wore! Here are all of the details on the real piece it replicates: Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe.

Queen Adelaide is depicted wearing a diamond fringe necklace in a portrait

The diamond fringe was one of the first major pieces of jewelry that Victoria wore following her accession. It originally belonged to her aunt, Queen Adelaide, the wife of King William IV. The fringe was commissioned by William IV from Rundell and Bridge in 1831, the year that he and Adelaide were crowned. According to Victoria’s 1896 jewel inventory, the diamonds used in the fringe originally belonged to William’s father, King George III. The diamonds were apparently taken from pieces of jewelry that had belonged to both George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte. Sir Hugh Roberts describes it as follows: “Sixty brilliant-set graduated bars, the central bars in cushion-cut and pear-shaped stones, divided by 60 graduated brilliant-set spikes; an extra six small graduated bars and five spikes detached; tiara fittings removed.”

Queen Adelaide is depicted wearing a diamond fringe necklace in a portrait

Adelaide wore her diamond fringe as a necklace; you can see it illustrated in a few portraits from the time of her husband’s reign. She and William had no surviving children. When he died in 1837, Adelaide handed over the fringe and other pieces of royal jewelry to the new monarch: her niece, Queen Victoria. Adelaide and Victoria had a good relationship; Victoria even asked the dowager queen to be one of the godparents of her first child, Princess Vicky.

Queen Victoria wears Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe, ca. 1837

Although the fringe was originally arranged as a necklace, Queen Victoria had it mounted on a tiara frame. One of her first appearances in the fringe took place in November 1837. She wore the tiara to the theater, an appearance that was commemorated in a contemporary illustration. In this portrait, shown above, the height of the diamond fringe tiara is exaggerated by the artist, Edward Parris.

Queen Victoria wears Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe in Winterhalter’s The First of May 1851

Victoria continued to wear the fringe during the early decades of her reign. It was immortalized by Winterhalter in The First of May 1851, a painting which features Victoria and Albert with their baby son, Prince Alfred, and his godfather, the Duke of Wellington. Victoria also wore the tiara at one of the seminal moments of her reign: the opening of Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition. Luckily, even though it contained diamonds that belonged to King George III and Queen Charlotte, it managed to escape the Hanoverian Claim of 1858.

Queen Alexandra wears Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe at her waist in a portrait taken at the time of her coronation in 1902

As with many of Victoria’s grand jewels, the fringe was largely set aside after Prince Albert’s death in 1861, although Roberts argues that she may have worn it as a corsage ornament during her widowhood. (Victoria also apparently noted in her journal that she wore the fringe as a necklace.) The fringe was designated as an heirloom of the crown, so when Victoria died in 1901, it passed to her son, King Edward VII. His wife, Queen Alexandra, wore the fringe at the waist of her gown for their coronation in 1902.

Queen Mary wears Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe as a tiara

Queen Mary began wearing the fringe after the accession her husband, King George V, in 1910. She had the piece set on a tiara frame once again, and wore the piece this way in several photographic portraits. But Mary was ultimately not satisfied with the fringe as a tiara, and she had her own fringe (Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara) made in 1919. That smaller, more streamlined fringe tiara is the one that was famously worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her wedding in 1947. You can see a side-by-side comparison of the two fringes below.

Side-by-side comparison: Mary wears Queen Adelaide’s Diamond Fringe as a tiara (left) and her own, newer fringe tiara (right)

Queen Adelaide’s Fringe was taken off its tiara frame once again when King George VI came to the throne in 1936. It was transformed back into a necklace for his wife, Queen Elizabeth, by Garrard, who added a “concealed snap” to the fringe. Even after the death of her husband, the Queen Mother kept the diamond fringe necklace in her own jewelry box.

The piece should have passed to her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, as it is one of the heirlooms of the crown. But, along with several other pieces of jewelry, the Queen allowed her mother to retain the fringe. (Elizabeth II had her own diamond fringe necklace already: the City of London Fringe, which she received as a wedding present.) The Queen eventually did gain possession of Queen Adelaide’s Fringe; it was transferred to her collection in 2002 after her mother’s death. She has yet to wear it in public.

Queen Victoria wears the jewel in a state portrait by Winterhalter, ca. 1859 (Wikimedia Commons)

One of the grandest, most glittering ornaments in Queen Victoria’s collection was today’s diamond fringe brooch — but, believe it or not, it used to be even grander!

Detail of an 1870 copy of the Winterhalter state portrait, showing the fringe ornament more closely (Royal Collection)

Here’s a close-up of the ornament from an 1870 copy of a Winterhalter portrait. Have a look at the neckline of her gown. See the fringe that runs along the entire border, getting longer in the middle, with the large diamond set in the center? That’s the original chaine de corsage that Victoria ordered from Garrard in 1856. According to Hugh Roberts, the vast majority of the diamonds in the ornament came from a jewel that had been given to her by Sultan Abdul Mejid I of Turkey six months earlier. She noted in her diary that one of the jewels that the sultan had given her would “have to be reset,” because it was simply too large to wear. It seems that this extraordinary chaine de corsage was the result of Garrard’s subsequent work. The piece was made of diamonds set in silver and gold.

The Fringe Brooch in its current iteration (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

When Prince Albert died, this ornament was one of the pieces that Queen Victoria quietly put away — it was simply too glittering and elaborate for her mourning attire. Roberts argues that, in 1870, she actually had the piece partially dismantled, removing the fringes from either side of the central diamond, transforming the jewel into a much smaller fringe brooch. You can see the revised version of the jewel above; it still exists in this form today. Roberts describes the piece as follows: “with a large emerald-cut brilliant framed by small brilliants (detachable as a separate brooch), surrounded by 12 large brilliants in cut-down open-backed collets, suspending nine graduated pave-set brilliant pampilles, or chains, each link of two stones.”

Queen Alexandra wears the small diamond crown and the fringe brooch in a portrait taken during the official court mourning period for Queen Victoria, 1901

The diamonds from the dismantled fringe sections were probably used to make the small new diamond crown that she wore throughout her widowhood. Above, Queen Alexandra wears both the fringe brooch (pinned at the neck) and the small diamond crown. When Victoria died, she did not designate the brooch as an heirloom of the crown. Instead, she bequeathed it directly to her son, King Edward VII. His wife, Queen Alexandra, began wearing the brooch almost immediately, and she kept it until her death in 1925.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother wears the brooch in an official coronation portrait, 1937 (AFP/Getty Images)

Queen Mary inherited the brooch from Alexandra, and in 1936, it was one of the jewels that she handed over to her daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth. Above, Elizabeth wears the brooch pinned to her Garter sash in a portrait taken around the time of her coronation in 1937. She also wore it for her daughter’s coronation in 1953, and she kept it until her own death in 2002.

The Queen wears the brooch at a state banquet honoring the President of Turkey at Buckingham Palace in November 2011 (Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Since inheriting the fringe brooch from her mother fifteen years ago, Queen Elizabeth II has worn the large diamond jewel occasionally. Given its history, the brooch was a very appropriate choice for a state banquet in honor of the President of Turkey in 2011.

The Queen wears the brooch to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Despite its size and wattage, the Queen has also occasionally chosen the piece for daytime occasions. She wears the brooch above in France to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 2014.