Continuing on with my coverage for the Platinum Jubilee, we are returning back to Her Majesty’s jewel vaults for Style File Friday. With one of the most impressive jewellery collections in the world, The Queen has more than enough tiaras to choose from. (And lend out to the lucky women in her family…) We tend to see Elizabeth wearing the same handful of tiaras, but with royal weddings and state banquets, we see different tiaras worn on different members of the family. This week we are going to be looking at Queen Elizabeth II’s best pearl tiaras!
Note: I have chosen tiaras that feature pearls. They do have diamonds, but a pearl only tiara is quite rare! Unfortunately, there aren’t a ton of pearl tiaras, but I will be featuring pearl jewellery in a later post.
If you want more tiaras, you can find my post on Her Majesty’s best diamond tiaras here!
The Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara
This tiara dates back to 1913; Queen Mary decided that she wanted a tiara to mimic one of her favourites, one belonging to her aunt (the Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz). Technically the tiara we know is Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara; however, it is commonly referred to as the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara by media and the public.
“There was a strong French influence in its neo-classical design of nineteen openwork diamond arches, each enclosing an oriental pearl drop from a diamond lover’s knot bow, and surmounted by single diamonds and upright oval pearl spikes… Queen Mary chose a base of diamonds”. (The Queen’s Jewels, 113)
This tiara has come back into popular knowledge with the Duchess of Cambridge’s recent wearings. She was first seen wearing the tiara at a diplomatic reception in December 2015. To date (as of February 2022), it is Catherine’s most commonly worn tiara.
The Queen had lent this tiara to the late Princess of Wales; Diana wore it several times throughout her time as Princess of Wales. It was lent as a wedding present, and Diana wore it for several different state banquets and the State Opening of Parliament. When she and Prince Charles divorced, the tiara went back into the royal vaults.
While I think that journalists and royal watchers everywhere really overuse the “sweet nod to Diana” in terms of everything the Duchess of Cambridge wears, I think that lending Catherine this tiara is a lovely connection to her late mother-in-law. The Cambridge connection is also particularly strong- Her Majesty knows what she is doing!
The Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia’s Tiara
This tiara gets to do double duty, as it can be set with either pearls or emeralds. This is one of The Queen’s favourite tiaras. You will see her wearing it in countless official portraits, as well as at numerous state events (in both settings). I consider myself incredibly fortunate, as I was able to see this tiara in person in the Russia: Royalty and the Romanovs exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery with the pearl setting.
This tiara originally belonged to the Grand Duchess Vladimir, aka Princess Marie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
“Around 1890, the Grand Duchess commissioned a Russian jeweller to make her a diamond tiara of fifteen interlaced circles with a swinging oriental pearl suspended in each.” (The Queen’s Jewels, 116)
The Grand Duchess was able to escape Russia, and her jewels were smuggled out afterwards. It is thought that an Englishman (Stopford) was able to rescue her jewels out of a hidden safe and smuggled them out of Russia in newspaper and old bags. She passed the tiara onto her daughter, Princess Nicholas of Greece.
Queen Mary purchased the tiara from Princess Nicholas in 1921. The Princess and her husband were raising their three daughters in Paris, and badly needed the money. (There are a lot of questions around the morality of how Queen Mary acquired so many of her famed jewels but that is a discussion for another day… possibly an entire book.) Mary then had the remaining fifteen Cambridge emeralds mounted to allow her to change between the pearls and emeralds.
Since The Queen inherited this tiara from her grandmother upon her death in 1953, we have not seen anyone else in the royal family wearing it. (Understandably) Occasionally, she will wear it in a “widowed” setting, meaning without either pearl or emerald drops. It isn’t common but is still a striking tiara.
Honourable Mention: The Lotus Flower Tiara
This is a bit of a wild-card inclusion because The Queen actually has not worn this publicly but it does belong to her (more on that below) and the pearls are debatably a main feature.
The Queen Mother originally owned this tiara; she had a Garrard necklace (that she received as a wedding present from her husband) remade into tiara shortly after the wedding. It is in an art-deco style common in the 1920s, and features pearls. The Queen Mother gave the tiara to Princess Margaret in 1959, who frequently wore the tiara.
Most of us assumed that it belonged to the Earl of Snowdon, as his wife wore the tiara for her 1993 wedding to the then-Viscount Linley. However, in December 2013, the Duchess of Cambridge wore the Lotus Flower Tiara for the annual diplomatic reception and again in 2015, meaning that Margaret either returned the tiara to her sister or left it to her.
*Field, Leslie. The Queen’s Jewels: The Personal Collection of Elizabeth II. Harry N. Abrams, Inc,: New York, 1987.
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If you want more royal news, I have started a new monthly feature (on the last Saturday of each month) where I share my thoughts on royal news items: Musings on Monarchy: January 2022!
What tiaras are on your list of Queen Elizabeth II’s best pearl tiaras?
Cheers,
The Historian
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