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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Saturday Sparkler Special: Queen Mary’s Tiaras (Part 2)

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Time for the second installment of our survey of Queen Mary’s impressive tiara collection! If you missed part one, hop over here to read about the all-diamond tiaras in Mary’s jewelry box. Today, we’re looking at her cache of sparklers that combined diamonds and pearls…

The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara

Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Original Owner: Queen Mary of the United Kingdom
Maker: E. Wolff and Co. for Garrard, 1893

One of the most classic and beautiful tiaras in the British collection, Queen Mary received this one as a wedding present. And although it is an all-diamond tiara today, it was originally topped by fourteen large pearls. Mary later had those pearls replaced with diamonds and used the pearls on her new Lover’s Knot Tiara. Mary gave the tiara to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, as a wedding present, and it’s still one of the Queen’s most-worn tiaras today.
 

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Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara

Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Original Owner: Queen Mary of the United Kingdom
Maker: E. Wolff and Co. for Garrard, 1913

Mary commissioned this tiara to mimic the design of a sparkler that belonged to her grandmother, the Duchess of Cambridge. The new lover’s knot tiara recycled pearls that had once been atop the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, as well as other pearls from Mary’s collection. The tiara once also had upright pearls fixed atop the piece, although those have since been permanently removed. The Queen inherited the tiara from her grandmother in 1953, but today, it’s probably most associated with another wearer: Diana, Princess of Wales.

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The Vladimir Tiara

Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Original Owner: Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia
Maker: Likely Bolin, ca. 1874

This diamond tiara of interlocking circles and pearl pendants was made for Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, sister-in-law of Czar Alexander III of Russia. After the revolution, her daughter sold the tiara to Queen Mary, who had it adapted to take either the original pearl drops or a set of drops from the Cambridge emerald collection. Queen Elizabeth II inherited the piece in 1953, and she still wears it regularly today.

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The Diamond Diadem

Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Original Owner: King George IV of the United Kingdom
Maker: Rundell, Bridge, and Rundell, ca. 1820

Made for George IV to wear at his coronation, this diamond and pearl diadem is really more crown than tiara. The diadem includes symbols of England, Scotland, and Ireland and features two rows of pearls at its base. It’s been in the collections of all subsequent queens and queens consort: Adelaide, Victoria, Alexandra, Mary, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth II. Today, the Queen wears the diadem every year during part of the State Opening of Parliament ceremonies.

Which of these tiaras is your favorite? Weigh in below, and stay tuned next week for another group of Queen Mary’s tiaras!

This Week in Royal Jewels: May 8-14

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May 8-14, 2015

Brooches and earrings were on the menu for this week’s royal jewel buffet. Be sure to weigh in on your favorites in the poll!
10. Princess Charlene of Monaco shone this week in a new pair of diamond and pearl earrings set in white gold, worn for the christening of her twins, Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques. They’re Cartier, from the company’s Himalia collection.

9. Princess Caroline also chose a major pair of earrings for the christening, plus a necklace that looks to have a heart-shaped pendant. You can see more on her outfit, plus all of the other baubles worn on the day, in this post.
8. Queen Letizia of Spain chose a pair of diamond earrings with a cultured pearl drop to celebrate Red Cross World Day in Valladolid on Friday. Like many of Letizia’s earrings, this pair is reportedly by Tous.

7. Letizia wore a second pair of pearl drop earrings on Wednesday to deliver the national flag to the Spanish Civil Guard. The ribbon pinned to her jacket is the dame’s bow of the Order of Charles III, one of the highest orders of Spanish chivalry.

6. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg visited Paris to mark VE Day, and Stephanie chose small earrings for a performance on Friday at Les Invalides.

5. We also had a rare sighting this week of another Luxembourgish princess! Princess Tessy wore a necklace with multiple pendant charms and earrings with green stones for a charity gala on Tuesday in London.

4. The British royals held the first garden party of the season at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. The Countess of Wessex wore a new pair of earrings, made out of diamonds and pearls. (Or, knowing Sophie, perhaps a facsimile of those stones.)

3. Camilla also wore a new piece of jewelry at the garden party: an all-diamond butterfly brooch, which adds to her growing collection of brooches with an insect theme.

2. It was a three-brooch week for Queen Elizabeth II, who donned her mother’s diamond and aquamarine brooch on Friday, the magnificent Cullinan V on Sunday, and the impressive Courtauld-Thomsen Scallop-Shell Brooch at Tuesday’s garden party.

1. My top spot for the week has to go to Queen Sofia of Spain, who wore this gorgeous necklace and bracelet set at the Madrid Open on Sunday. That’s one way to pull focus from Rafa Nadal!

Queen Máxima’s Wedding Tiara

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The year is 2002, and our Magpie of the Month, Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, is preparing to marry the heir to the Dutch throne. If you’re a royal bride, you can play the wedding tiara game a few ways: you can opt for a safe choice (like the Duchess of Cambridge), you can wear an heirloom tiara (like Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden), you can go for no tiara at all (never something I’d personally advise), or you can go big. Máxima, being Máxima, went for major sparkle.

Máxima chose something of a frankentiara — a piece that features elements of two different items of jewelry mixed together to make a new tiara — for her wedding day. First, she selected the base of one of the Dutch royal family’s existing tiaras: the Pearl Button Tiara. There’s a debate about the actual age of the Pearl Button: some think that it was made in the twentieth century, while others argue that its base was a part of a coronet worn by Queen Sophie of the Netherlands, which would make it an earlier creation.

Rather than wearing the tiara with the pearl buttons, Queen Máxima chose to wear it on her wedding day with five of the diamond stars that belonged to Queen Emma. Emma had been given two sets of diamond star brooches when she married King Willem III in 1879. One set has stars with ten points; the other has stars with twelve.

Máxima chose the ten-pointed stars for her wedding tiara. On occasion, she also wears the twelve-pointed stars in other ways, including as pins on order sashes.

So far, only two members of the Dutch royal family have worn the star version of this tiara: Máxima and her husband’s aunt, Princess Margriet. It’s not a tiara that every princess could pull off — you need an element of pizzazz about you to make the stars work. But it’s practically perfect for Máxima, who absolutely oozes joie de vivre.