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    The Windsor Princesses First Tiaras Archived Message

    Posted by Bryce on October 22, 2015, 9:21 pm

    I have been reading Counting One’s Blessings ~ the Selected letters of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother edited by William Shawcross which I am finding quite interesting.

    I have come across some jewellery references which I thought may be of interest to the board readers.

    One letter is perhaps of current interest as it relates to tiara provenance.

    The letter is written to Queen Mary from Sandingham on April 11, 1944.

    The jewellery reference is in a postscript and reads as follows:

    "PS I am giving Lilibet a small diamond tiara of my own for her 18th birthday, & Bertie is giving her a little bracelet to wear now. It is almost impossible to buy anything good, but he may find something secondhand."

    Here is what I find interesting:
    1)"a small diamond tiara of my own" – as it says “of my own” I think that there might be 3 choices here – the Strathmore Rose, the Cariter Scroll/Halo and the Lotus/Papyrus. My assumption is that this is the Strathmore Rose Tiara.

    2)"Bertie is giving her a little bracelet" – we know that this is the diamond and sapphire bracelet with the central link.

    3)"to wear now" – I think that this means that Princess Elizabeth can wear the bracelet now but would not wear the tiara now as she is not yet married or old enough – as mention in the thread below

    Princess Elizabeth’s 18th birthday was April 26, 1944. There are no letters discussing Princess Margaret’s 18th birthday in Shawcross’s book. However, I would expect that QEQM would have treated her daughters equally and given Margaret a tiara too.

    Please correct me if I am wrong but, I think that Princess Margaret first wore a tiara at her sister’s Coronation on June 2, 1953 and the on June 8th at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden during coronation week.

    The Tiara she wore was the Cartier Scroll/Halo tiara. I suspect that this might have been Margaret’s 18th birthday tiara.

    Margaret also wore the Lotus/Papyrus early on but not as early as the Scroll/Halo.

    By the time ‘Lilibet’ was married she had Queen Mary’s wedding gifts to wear and I do not think that we ever saw her wear her “18th Birthday” tiara.

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