The tiara in question was the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara, and it was her ‘something borrowed’, belonging at the time to her mother, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who had been given it by her husband’s mother, Queen Mary. Commissioned by Mary in 1919, it was originally a fringe necklace that was a wedding day gift from Queen Victoria, which she wore in her hair. Yet Mary was fond of customising her jewellery pieces to make them into something new and more to her taste, so 26 years after her wedding day in 1893 she asked Garrard to make it into a kokoshnik-style piece, consisting of 47 graduated brilliant and rose-set tapering bars, separated by 46 narrower spikes, which could still be removed to make a necklace.
Mary of Teck wearing the Fringe Tiara in 1926
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
The kokoshnik tiara style was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly with the Romanov Imperial family. Up until her death, the Queen owned several other tiaras in this style, one which was owned by the Grand Duchess Vladimir, and the Greville Emerald Tiara, which she lent to her granddaughter Princess Eugenie on her wedding day in 2018. The latter was created 1919 by Boucheron for Margaret Greville, a British society fixture and philanthropist, and was later inherited by the Queen Mother on her death.