Re: Tiara alteration - more speculationArchived Message
Posted by aigrette on July 18, 2014, 6:01 am, in reply to "Re: Tiara alteration"
Since we don't actually know what happened, it's possible to speculate lots of different ideas. This is my contribution: When the tiara was altered, the top row of diamonds had to be removed because the tiara would not otherwise be able to be opened out as we see it today. Does anyone know what happened to these diamonds? Is it possible to think that they were needed for something else, which is why they were removed from a hitherto not often worn tiara, and a tiara with too much imperial history. Therefore I want to suggest, perhaps that when the Burmese ruby tiara was made, some of the stones, as we know came from the Hyderbad tiara, but, since the three roses were kept as brooches, this would not provide enough diamonds for the ruby tiara, and given the Indian / Burmese link, it might have been the case that extra diamonds were taken from the durban tiara for this purpose? And thus, with the top bars removed, it was possible to re-order the diadem, as presumably the top rows provided sufficent tension to keep the tiara upright, and without them the structure of the frame would need to be changed.
As I said, only a wildcard speculation, but there you have it!