Sotheby’s London Unveils A Rare Tiara Exhibit To Celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Not since the Victoria & Albert Museum’s exhibit “Tiaras” curated by Geoffrey Munn 20 years ago with 200 ancient to antique head ornaments has there been another tiara exhibit of great magnitude. That is all about to change with Sotheby’s London’s Tiara exhibition which is being held in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee from May 28 through June 15, 2022.

The exhibition will feature approximately 50 tiaras of royal provenance and some of them will be exhibited publicly for the first time.

Tiaras, diadems and bandeaus have been in the jewelry news in recent years due to series such as Downton Abbey (the series and the film), The Crown, Bridgeton, and other period small and silver screen productions. They have made headlines as celebrities brought them back into style, wearing them to red carpet events; while the most recent Met Gala secured their place among the best bejeweled looks and a trend that would surely continue.

Brides are wearing them in lieu of veils and antique dealers are bringing them out of their safes again. It’s perfect timing and extremely exciting for some of the most famous of the noblest and stately headpieces to be loaned to Sotheby’s from the 18^th century onward in a range of styles from the different periods alongside a small group of which will be for sale including British contemporary designer’s interpretations and commissions.

Kristian Spofforth, Head of Jewelry at Sotheby’s London said in a statement, “The Queen’s Jubilee celebrations have given us the perfect opportunity to put on public display an outstanding selection of tiaras from noble and royal provenance, many of which haven’t been exhibited in decades. The sourcing of these jewels has been a labor of love, resulting in an exhibition that showcases the best iterations within the tiara style register, through some of its most famous incarnations – including the much-loved and photographed Spencer Tiara. This is also a wonderful moment for us to shine a special light on the dazzling craftsmanship delivered by generations of mainly British-based jewelers across several centuries of tiara making.”

The reigning star of the exhibition is The Spencer Tiara which was passed down from 1767 through generations of the Spencer family and was famously worn by Lady Diana on her highly anticipated and legendary wedding day. The Spencer tiara was added to and transformed throughout the years and then in the 1930s crown jeweler Garrard was commissioned for the final iteration which is the one Lady Diana also wore often to high profile events from 1883-1992. This will be the first time it is exhibited in London since the 1960s.

In a statement, Sotheby’s describes the piece with its famous garland style design, “central heart-shaped motif set with diamonds flanked by continuous running scrolls, interspersed with star- and trumpet-shaped flowers – also set with diamonds, mounted in silver and gold. The heart-shaped piece was particularly sentimental to Lady Diana as her grandmother, Lady Cynthia Hamilton, received it as a wedding present for her 1919 marriage to “Jack”, Viscount Althorp, the future 7th Earl Spencer.”

Other highlights of the exhibition include:

Joséphine Bonaparte’s Gold, Cameo and Enamel Diadem, which was inspired by ancient Greece’s and Rome’s head ornaments. Sotheby’s reports that “Joséphine Bonaparte reintroduced tiaras through a Neoclassical style that was unique in mixing decorative items such intaglios and decorated cameos with more precious elements such pearls and diamonds.”

This highly rare tiara exquisitely showcases the very finest early 19th-century French craftsmanship. The gold diadem is adorned with five oval hardstone cameos made of layered agate and jasper – initially created between the 16th and 18th centuries – including the head of Medusa and a profile of Zeus, all within a border of blue enamel and connected by two rows of undulating entrelac de ruban motifs, each with a blue enamel lozenge motif at the center. The diadem was made in Paris for Joséphine Bonaparte by artist Jacques-Ambroise Oliveras, around 1805. This tiara was sold previously by Sotheby’s London last December as part of a set of two that sold above estimate at £576,600 (est. £300,000-500,000).

Queen Victoria’s Emerald and Diamond Tiara was designed by Prince Albert in Gothic Revival style for Queen Victoria in 1845, crafted by crown jeweler Joseph Kitching. Sotheby’s reports that this tiara is widely seen as one of the most elegant and sumptuous colored gemstone tiaras created anywhere in the world. Set in gold, it has cushion-shaped diamonds interspersed with step-cut emeralds lined across its base, topped by further diamonds and emeralds shaped in scrolls and surmounted by a graduated row of 19 inverted cabochon pear-shaped emeralds. Queen Victoria is known to have worn the tiara on several royal and official engagements, including a state visit to France in 1855.

Several tiaras in the exhibition were worn for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, including the Anglesey Tiara thought to have been made around 1890; the Derby Tiara initially created for the Duchess of Devonshire in 1893; and the Westminster Halo Tiara, commissioned to Paris-based jewelers Lacloche Frères in 1930 by the Duke of Westminster for his bride Loelia Ponsonby.

The Derby Tiara: designed with diamond-set palmettes and lotus flowers, probably by Skinner & Co., circa 1890

Designed as a series of stylized buds issued from an openwork band, from which issues a sequence of eleven angular palmettes within diamond borders between which sit graduated lotus flowers, set throughout with cushion-shaped, rose- and circular-cut diamonds in gold and silver, in a fitted Carrington & Co. case.

Here are some more tiaras that span from 19th through the mid-twentieth century:

A diamond tiara, circa 1830 – A Napoleonic style laurel wreath tiara set with diamonds throughout in a pediment form, created circa 1830

Designed as a wreath of diamond-set leaves forming a pediment shape, set throughout with cushion- and pear-shaped diamonds.

A cultured pearl and diamond bandeau-style fringe tiara, early 20th century (Fringe and Art Deco) Set throughout with circular-, rose-cut and cushion-shaped diamonds, bandeau-style fringed diamond tiara with an Art Deco diamond and dot base between two continuous bands of diamonds, surmounted by a late 19th-century row of round pearl-topper spikes of alternating long and short length.

A gem-set silver bandeau of foliage and flowers, circa 1920

Designed as an openwork bandeau of foliage and flowers, set at the center with a cabochon emerald and with circular-cut sapphires and pink sapphire within the centers of the flowers.

A turquoise and diamond parure, Van Cleef & Arpels, 1960s (Modern)

The tiara is designed as five graduated large oval cabochon turquoise stones within a brilliant-cut diamond-set border, interspersed by six smaller cabochon turquoise stones, the necklace and earrings of conforming design, the smaller cabochons of the necklace issuing diamond-set stylized buds, struck to the clasp with maker’s mark

And this modern-day interpretation by Christopher Thompson-Royds, 2022 Designed as two mirrored wreaths of forget-me-nots set en tremblant on a gold frame.

Lectures and other events surrounding the exhibit will be held, please visit the website here