Tale of A Tiara

Princess Diana once joked with a friend over the phone: "Sorry about the noise. I was trying to get my tiara on." Not likely- and certainly not with the Cambridge Lover's Knot Tiara, a wedding gift from her mom-in-law; who had been left the tiara by her grandmother Queen Mary; who used gems received as wedding gifts to copy a tiara owned by her grandmother. With a difference: Instead of placing the 19 diamond arches, each contained a drop pearl, on a band of matched pearls, Mary went for Diamonds. She initially placed spiked pearls atop each of the diamond bows, as her grandmother had, but later removed them. That suited Elizabeth, who wore the tiara rarely, and Diana, who wore it so famously.

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A limited edition of the Tiara was made in the 19th century. This one went to a Romanov; another to Queen Mary's grandmother Princess Augusta of Hesse.

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In 1926 Queen Mary
wore a self-designed
version, wich she left to...

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... Queen Elizabeth,
who wore it in 1959. She placed it in storage until she gave it to...

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... Princess Diana,
Who found it too heavy to wear at her wedding. By 1990 she appeared at ease with all those jewels-and history.