Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara

Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara is “set with brilliant- and rose-cut diamonds, mainly in cut-down silver-backed settings, and 19 pendant baroque pearls.”¹

The design of Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot tiara was based on a tiara that belonged to Queen Mary’s grandmother, Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, Duchess of Cambridge. The latter tiara was later left to Mary’s aunt, Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who left it to her granddaughter, Duchess Jutta of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. This tiara was sold at auction in 1981 to Georg and Marie Gabrielle von Waldburg zu Zeil.

Queen Mary’s tiara was made using diamonds and pearl drops taken from a necklace/tiara given to her upon her marriage by “650 ladies of England.”¹ An additional 13 pearls were taken from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, as were 11 pearls from her mother’s jewellery. 26 of the 38 pearls were made to be detachable. Six of the fixed pearls have now been removed but they had been made detachable in 1932.

Queen Elizabeth II inherited the tiara in 1953, and she loaned it to her daughter-in-law, Diana, following her marriage. It is currently on loan to her granddaughter-in-law, Catherine.

1. The Queen’s Diamonds by Hugh Roberts p.182