A little bit about the results: with 140+ tiaras suggested, the field was very wide and the votes were spread all over. Some made the list because they're just well-known overall, and others are a testament to the power of people reading and participating in the comment discussion, like Queen Victoria's Sapphire Coronet. A few things that surprised me:
The inclusion of the Cut Steel Tiara. If I had to guess which token "unusual" tiara would have made it, I would have gone with the Cameo Tiara - especially since it got a boost of publicity with Victoria's wedding in 2010. (And I was nearly right. The old Cameo popped in at #17.)
Speaking of wedding publicity, I'm surprised the Halo Scroll Tiara didn't have a very good showing. I thought the Power of Catherine would bump it higher than #71.
The tiara I am most surprised to see on your list is the Luxembourg Empire Tiara. Luxembourg's jewel collection is not very well-known, and the design itself can be overpowering for many (as proven by your comments!).
My other big surprise was how well the Rose Cut Diamond Bandeau did. As far as vote totals go, #1 and #2 absolutely ran away with it, and there for a while I thought we might even end up with the bandeau on top. In the end, though, the Girls won handily.
Now, because I'm terribly nosy, I'd love to know how this compared to your own list or to what you predicted before the countdown began. Did anything really surprise you? Do tell.
Next week, we'll have royal Christmas shenanigans to review and we'll start wrapping up the best and worst of the sartorial year. Until then, a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, festive assorted other holidays, and a delightful weekend to you and yours!
Before I asked you to show me your favorite tiara, I showed you mine...and you agreed with me! Sweet, sweet validation. And I’m pretty sure Queen Elizabeth agrees with all of us, since this is her favorite tiara.
The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, in its current form
This tiara was one of the future Queen Mary’s wedding presents in 1893, and you’ll never guess who gave it to her...the girls of Great Britain and Ireland. Specifically, a committee of them chaired by Lady Eve Greville (not the same lady as the Greville inheritance, mind you). The committee raised over £5,000 and purchased this tiara from Garrard before donating the remainder of the funds to charity at the request of the princess.
Queen Mary with the original version of the tiara (first and second on the left), just the bandeau, and her altered version of the piece
The tiara is a diamond design of festoons and scrolls set on a bandeau base of round and lozenge-shaped diamonds. It was originally topped with nine large pearl finials, and it could also originally be worn as a necklace. But you know Queen Mary, she never left her jewels alone, and so the original version did not stay put for long. In 1914, she removed the pearl finials and replaced them with simpler diamond collets; she also removed the base of the tiara and used it as a separate bandeau.
The tiara after Mary's alterations, as first received by Princess Elizabeth
In 1947, Mary gave the tiara to her granddaughter Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present, who is said to affectionately call it as “Granny’s tiara”. Right away, with tiara occasions coming back in vogue after the war, this became a frequently worn piece. Without the bandeau, it nestled right in with Elizabeth's never-changing hairstyle.
The tiara worn without the base
There's some mystery surrounding the separation of the bandeau base and the tiara itself. In this video (click here), around 9:15 you can hear Elizabeth talk about the tiara, and she indicates that she didn’t know the tiara had a base until after Queen Mary’s death in 1953. However, the bandeau can be seen displayed separately in the public viewing of the couple’s wedding gifts at St. James Palace. Perhaps she just meant that she didn’t know they were intended to go together?
With the base added
Anyway, with her new tiara knowledge in hand, Queen Elizabeth paired up the bandeau and the tiara once again. She made the change in 1969, and it’s been the same ever since. Though she'd already been queen for some time when she added it back in, it seems a fitting queenly makeover. A little extra height for the boost in position, maybe.
This is known to be a very light tiara; it must also be fairly easy and comfortable to wear, with no pendants clanging about or anything like that. It's certainly easy to put on, or perhaps she's just practiced at it - Queen Elizabeth does her own tiara attachment. Factor in the sentiment behind a wedding gift from a beloved relative, plus the fact that it's one of the first tiaras she ever wore, and you've got the one diadem that the Queen pulls out more than any other. (And if you're trying to figure out how this got to be #1, don't forget: that means this is automatically one of the most famous tiaras in the world.) I have declared this in the past to be the most perfect tiara ever, and I stand firmly by my assessment. Why do I love this tiara? Let me count the ways...
Here you can see the dimension in the settings of the diamonds, which helps to catch light from every angle
It's all diamond (at least it is now), so that makes it nice and all purpose. It’s classically pretty - no real experimentation going on here, which tickles my particular fancy at least. And I think the design makes it easy to pair with a variety of styles of other jewelry (necklaces, etc.).
In motion
It’s big enough to say “I’m the Queen!” without screaming it loudly over every other aspect of one’s outfit. It’s also sizeable but light, which is always good for pretending it’s in your own collection (don’t pretend I’m the only one doing that, I know what your game is). And it’s sparkly. Oh, so sparkly. What more could you ask for?
Does this top your personal list?
Tomorrow: I will have a recap of the full Top 15. I'm eager to hear your thoughts on the countdown as a whole; until then, do enjoy your #1 gem.
I told you when we first covered this tiara that it would make my desert island list of five essential tiaras. As it turns out, we’d all have to be on the same island. (Though something tells me we’d never get it out of Máxima’s hands to take it on our three hour tour in the first place.) In a competition that ended up favoring the “go big or go home” rule, I love that you made sure to give this one a special pass for its own brand of going big. Incidentally, this is also the only diadem that came anywhere close to giving our #1 tiara some competition.
Are you surprised at where this fell on our countdown list?
Coming in at number three, we have a tiara that hasn't been seen in public for a long, long time. And unless following the many and varied descendants of Queen Victoria is a personal hobby of yours, there's a good chance you're not that familiar with its wearers. But never mind that. Just loooook at it:
The Fife Tiara
The Fife Tiara is the third tiara on your list to hail from a noble family, but this time we have a royal beginning. It first belonged to Princess Louise of Wales, the oldest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. When she married the Earl of Fife in 1889, she received quite a waterfall of sparkling presents; this stunning tiara with pear-shaped diamonds hanging freely in a diamond framework, topped with more pear-shaped diamonds alternating with round diamonds, was among them. It is thought to be the work of Parisian jeweler Oscar Massin. This is sometimes said to have been a gift from her parents, but contemporary reporting of her wedding gifts attributed it to the Earl (who was made the Duke of Fife by Queen Victoria right after the wedding). Her parents' gift, on the other hand, is described as a classic convertible diamond fringe tiara.
Princess Louise, the Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife
Poor Louise is something of a background figure in royal history. She wasn't as pretty as her mother or her sister, Victoria, and she wasn't as notably married as her sister Queen Maud of Norway. Apparently a rather difficult person to make conversation with, she earned herself the title "Her Royal Shyness" and was most known for her talents in the realms of music and fishing. Her marriage to the Duke, who was 18 years older, seems to have done her a world of good - as, no doubt, did the escape from the smothering atmosphere of her parents' home. She was one of the first princesses to marry a subject rather than a prince but Queen Victoria approved of the union, noting that the groom was extremely rich.
Princess Louise
Louise was given the title of Princess Royal, but didn't play a large role in the royal family. Her ill health was a continual problem, and she escaped to warmer climates each winter. While en route to Egypt for the winter of 1911, the Fife family was shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco. Though they all survived, the ordeal took a toll on the Duke's health, and he passed away the following month.
The Duchess of Fife (left - wearing the Fife Tiara and the fringe tiara from her parents around her neck) and Queen Alexandra (right - wearing the kokoshnik tiara now worn by Queen Elizabeth) with Alexandra's mother, Queen Louise of Denmark (center)
Louise had three children: a stillborn son followed by two daughters, Alexandra and Maud. Because it was known in advance that there would be no Fife son to inherit the title, Queen Victoria made a special dispensation for inheritance in the female line. Accordingly, Princess Alexandra became the Duchess of Fife in her own right when her father died. Later she was also known as Princess Arthur of Connaught through her marriage. As she was predeceased by her own son, the title passed down to her nephew, James Carnegie. So far as we know, the tiara is still with the family.
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife
Tiara occasions for the Fifes are very rare, which is terribly sad for us jewel lovers. This one in movement would be absolutely spectacular. Mounted in gold and set in silver, the largest diamonds freely articulate inside their diamond arches. That means that they would tremble with the tiniest movement of the wearer's head, capturing and reflecting the light constantly.
Caroline, Countess of Southesk, daughter-in-law of the current Duke
This has always been a favorite of mine. It has enormous individual stones and the design is very spiky, like a Gothic fence of some sort (the prettiest Gothic fence ever). And yet, I think delicate is a perfectly applicable word to describe it. That's what's remarkable about this, what makes it a triumph of workmanship and design, really: it retains a certain lightness despite the staggering carat weight on display.
Quite frankly, I find it breathtaking - especially at first glance. I'm not at all surprised that this made it so high on the list, even with a low-key history and essentially no contemporary outings and no well-known wearers.
Did you know about this tiara prior to our little voting extravaganza, or are you a new convert?
We have bemoaned the size of Crown Princess Mary's tiara collection many a time on this site. She has just two, plus the loaned Midnight Tiara, and one of them is a tiara that many find way too small for a future queen. But here's a thought: if you were to value jewel collections by the weight of their historical provenance, rather than just cumulative carats of bling or pure variety, Mary might come out farther ahead in the game than you think. Yes, her ruby parure - containing your fourth favorite tiara - carries some hefty historical weight indeed.
It was Alexandrine that gave it to Princess Ingrid of Sweden when she married Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in 1935. You've probably noticed by now that the pictures of the tiara in use so far look nothing like the tiara we know today (nothing slips past you!), and you're quite right. The original version was more like a small wreath than a proper tiara, but Ingrid fixed that. In 1947, she took two of the brooches that came with the initial parure (which she can be seen wearing above) and added them to the tiara, giving it much more substance and turning it into a proper diadem that still had a lovely wreath structure from the random placement of the leaves.
A young Princess Benedikte playing with her mother's rubies
You will often see this set referred to as "Ingrid's rubies" and that makes sense: not only is she responsible for the Extreme Tiara Makeover, this was one of her signature pieces. Apart from allowing her daughter Princess Benedikte to wear the parure for a play Ingrid put together on the life of Queen Desideria, Ingrid kept the rubies to herself and did not share with the other ladies in the family.
Queen Ingrid in the altered parure
When Queen Ingrid died in 2000 she left the parure to her beloved grandson, Crown Prince Frederik, thereby ensuring that the future Crown Princess would have a truly grand and historical set of jewels to wear. It is the first tiara Mary ever wore - she wore the set twice for pre-wedding events in 2004, though she obviously opted for her wedding tiara on her wedding day - and it is the tiara she chooses for her grandest events. It is her "big gun" and she saves it for big gun events. She wears it for the annual New Years Court gala, the fanciest occasion of the year for the Danish royals, and she took it out of the country for the first time in her marriage for the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. (No mistake there: Ingrid was married in that same cathedral.)
Crown Princess Mary in the tiara as she first wore it
The parure today includes a huge necklace, a set of earrings, a brooch, a bracelet, and a ring. It's interesting to note in close ups that the larger rubies are actually a couple smaller rubies joining forces to make one larger piece - that's not evident from farther away. (Large rubies are rare and expensive, so it makes practical sense to set it this way.) It's also interesting to investigate the color of the rubies; they often appear pink, magenta perhaps, rather than pure red. Crown Princess Mary has made some very successful combinations of this parure with dresses in many shades of blue, and I think the pink tones help her out there.
The parure's brooch
Ingrid usually wore the whole set at one time. But all together, it is enormous and possibly a bit overwhelming (certainly it must be a trial to wear!). So Mary's come up with some inventive ways to wear different pieces - the earrings can now take different pendants, she's worn the pendant of the brooch as a pendant on a necklace, that sort of thing.
The parure, L to R: the full parure; the pendant of the brooch used as a necklace; (above) the bracelet and ring; (below) the full earrings which have additional wires to wrap around the top of the ear to distribute their weight; the top of the earrings with a pearl pendant; and just the top of the earrings used for a more casual event
She's also taken a page out of Ingrid's book and has altered the shape of the tiara to her own taste. It's certainly not as large of a change as Ingrid made. She's rearranged the leaves, making a more compact shape, and she put it on a new frame customized to her head shape, which allows her to wear it upright more easily. The new tiara debuted in 2010.
Mary's tiara overhaul
I have to say, I miss the old version. I didn't even know that I appreciated the leafy randomness of the thing until she took some of it away. That said, I know this: a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Kudos to her for making it her own and doing whatever she needs to do to make such a cumbersome (grand and gorgeous, but cumbersome) piece work for her. We still have the sparkle, no matter which version you prefer.
Mary with the altered tiara
So, do you see why I think Mary comes out farther ahead in the jewel game than it might initially appear? She might not have access to as many jewels as Crown Princess Victoria or Princess Máxima, but which other crown princess has sole custody of a tiara with this much history and this large of an accompanying parure to boot? None of them have that. And though I would never call myself a big fan of her wedding tiara, after a full review of this set, I can understand why it is what it is: it's light, it's got to be easy to wear, it's basically the polar opposite of the rubies.
A sparkly view is above; for even more information and loads more glittering shots, I highly recommend you watch Part 1 of De Kongelige Juveler, where you can hear Queen Margrethe and Crown Princess Mary discuss this piece and what it means in their own words.
Several of you made special note of Diana’s influence when casting your vote for the good old Lover's Knot. This is a favorite of mine as well, and I’ll tell you it is definitely because of the combo of this tiara and that Elvis dress. It’s iconic, simply put.
Several of you also wondered if we might see this on the Duchess of Cambridge...ever. Some hoped we would, and others thought it would inspire too many comparisons to Diana. Well, I would have said the same thing about her engagement ring, and Catherine wears that and the sky hasn't fallen down or anything. Wear it, I say! (That's always my stance, basically.) Just think of the updos...
Coming in at number 6 on your list of favorite tiaras is a piece that could warrant a spot based on its story alone. Add in the fact that it comes with two different kinds of stones to swap out and its overall exquisite craftsmanship, and you’ve got yourself a winner.
The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, with pearls
Grand Duchess Vladimir (also known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, wife of the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich) was the aunt of Tsar Nicholas II, who was murdered alongside his family in 1918 by the Bolsheviks. Grand Duchess Vladimir was the grandest of the grand duchesses at the royal court, and she was no fan of the Tsar’s wife, Alexandra. So she packed up her magnificent jewel collection and set up a rival court at which she could properly dazzle.
Grand Duchess Vladimir
One of her most dazzling pieces was this tiara of 15 intertwined diamond circles strung together with a diamond ribbon on top and hung with articulating pendant pearls, made in the 1880s by jewelers working for the Russian court. She hid this wonderful example of intricate Russian craftsmanship in the vault at Vladimir Palace in 1918 when she fled St. Petersburg in the wake of the revolution. It remained hidden away until a friend of the family who happened to be a member of the British Secret Intelligence Service smuggled the jewels out of Russia for the Grand Duchess, tucked away in a plain bag.
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth with the pearl version
With her jewels finally returned to her, she split them up amongst her four children before passing away in Paris in 1920. This tiara went to her daughter, Princess Nicholas of Greece. Princess Nicholas sold her jewels to benefit both her family and Russian charities, and she sold this one in 1921 to Queen Mary. It was inherited by Queen Elizabeth on Mary’s death in 1953 along with the rest of her remaining jewel collection.
Up close, you can see how the circles delicately wrap around one another
A quick word on its Russian provenance, as this always brings up accusations that Queen Mary swindled her poor exiled relatives (and you can find evidence both ways, that she did wrong and that she didn't): the debate mainly relates to jewels that were delivered to Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga that Mary and George were meant to be helping value and sell. This tiara does not belong to that group, as it was bought separately from Princess Nicholas. In Part 2 of De Kongelige Juveler, you can see a written record of the purchase; we learn that the tiara was sold to Mary along with a diamond riviere for a price of £28,000 with all but £3,000 paid at the time of writing.
The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, with emeralds
Anyway, once in Queen Mary’s hands, of course she couldn’t leave it alone. Mary was in possession of the Cambridge emeralds, a group of around 40 cabochon emeralds which had originally belonged to Indian royalty but had made their way into British hands before being auctioned at a charity ball in 1818. The winner of the auction was Queen Mary’s grandmother, the Duchess of Cambridge. Once acquired by Mary, the emeralds were incorporated into new and existing royal pieces.
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth in the emerald version
To the Vladimir tiara, she added 15 spare stones that Garrard’s had cut and polished for her as an alternative to the dangling pearls. It was a pretty ingenious idea, actually, as it made a nice mid-sized tiara option to wear alongside the fabulous collection of emeralds that she had once she combined the Cambridge stash with emeralds collected in India during the Delhi Durbar.
The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, with no pendants
The Queen has worn this a few times in a third version, with no pendants at all. While I’m sure this is easier to wear (lighter, no stones swinging around as the emeralds or pearls would do), I’m afraid it looks like just what it is: a tiara with missing pieces.
Queen Elizabeth wearing the no pendant version
Perhaps because of its versatility, it has become one of the Queen’s favorite tiaras. She seems to prefer the pearl version - no doubt, she has plenty of pearl accessories to pair it with. In the 1980s, she had the deteriorating silver mount redone in sturdy yellow gold to hold up to her frequent usage.
The tiara in motion
While this tiara wouldn’t pop to the top of my own favorite tiara list, I wouldn’t turn it away either (obviously). I’d take it and I’d add even more pendant options to it, is what I’d do. There’s a similar tiara of Spanish royal provenance that uses aquamarines to great effect, but I'm thinking amethysts are what we need here.
If your eyes are good enough to make out what’s depicted in the avatar I use when commenting here or on Twitter, then you will know that I wholeheartedly support your selection of the Poltimore Tiara as your seventh favorite gem.
The Poltimore Tiara
On the advice of Deputy Master of the Household Patrick Plunkett, this tiara was acquired for Princess Margaret prior to the official announcement of her engagement to Antony Armstrong-Jones. This is how you see it termed, “acquired for Princess Margaret”; some say it was selected by Margaret and purchased by the Queen or the Queen Mother as Margaret’s wedding gift and others say Margaret bought it for herself. The tiara was originally made by Garrard for Florence, Lady Poltimore, wife of the second Baron Poltimore, in the 1870s. It was auctioned by the fourth Baron Poltimore in 1959 and was purchased for £5,500 at the time.
Lady Poltimore
The tiara is an all-diamond affair set in gold and silver in which clusters of cushion-shaped and old-cut diamonds are set amongst scroll motifs topped with diamonds. It has a maximum diameter of 19.2 centimeters, should you wish to get an idea of its size for yourself. And it is a convertible piece, breaking down into a necklace and a set of 11 brooches (brooch fittings and screwdriver included within the tiara’s blue leather case, naturally). In the close up view of the tiara, you can just see the fittings at the back of the tiara which release to allow it to come off of its frame.
A tiara close up; a look at the necklace and some of the brooches; Princess Margaret wearing the necklace and a brooch from the tiara
Margaret wore the necklace and brooch forms of the tiara prior to her wedding, but it was on her wedding day that the tiara made its grand debut. It certainly was a strategically chosen accessory; the height added to the princess’ own tiny frame, and the opulence of the full circlet was well countered by the divine simplicity of her wedding ensemble. It’s really a very grand piece for the sister of a queen and probably among the most grand tiaras worn by any of the British royal ladies, but Margaret’s forceful personality pulled it off with aplomb. So much so, in fact, that the smaller tiaras she had almost look disproportionately tiny in the absence of the Mighty Poltimore.
Most of you know the sad fate of this gem: it was sold. Faced with inheritance taxes in the £3 million range after her 2002 death, her children Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto put a selection of her jewels and other precious objects on the auction block at Christie’s in 2006. It was a controversial sale; rumor has it that it caused quite a row between David Linley and his father, Lord Snowdon. But it certainly did make some serious bank: the original estimation for the tiara’s price was £150,000 - £200,000, but the combination of royal provenance and sale publicity pushed the final price all the way up to £926,400 ($1,704,576).
Princess Margaret
I suppose, if you wanted to be logical about it (blech, how un-fun of you), you could make a case that it was reasonable to sell this particular tiara. It’s not like Viscountess Linley or Lady Sarah have many tiara-wearing occasions in either of their futures. And positioning this as the auction centerpiece surely contributed to the profits they were able to make in the long run.
The tiara at auction, in its case
Sometimes people cry out that the Queen should have bought it to keep it in the family, but really, that was never going to happen. She - most certainly not a magpie herself - has plenty of tiaras she’s already not wearing, and it’s not like this one had a huge royal history. And so we are left to weep that we might never see it again.
Christie’s said at the time that the auction was won by a private Asian buyer. It seems a little farcical to pay such an inflated price to break it apart for the diamonds, so I sincerely hope it is still in existence.
And for heaven’s sake, I hope the new owner is at least giving the old girl a spin in the bathtub every now and then.
