The world of jewelry is filled with pieces of incalculable value that disappeared due to wars, revolutions, thefts, or exiles. From the fascinating enigma of the Florentine Diamond to the mysterious lost treasures of the Romanovs, there are numerous emblematic pieces whose traces remain shrouded in mysteries. But sometimes fortune or chance brings them back to light. As with the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau tiara of Queen Mary of Teck.
This spectacular piece, which once belonged to the British royal family, has resurfaced almost 60 years after it was last seen. And it has done so in a very unusual place: in a Malaysian royal ceremony. The diadem, designed by Cartier, was worn by Tengku Natasya Adnan, princess of the Sultanate of Pahang, a state of Malaysia, on the occasion of the istiadat berinai ceremony, a traditional henna-application ritual held the night before the wedding.
The surprising news was announced by The Royal Watcher, a website specializing in the world of royalty. Thanks to its ties with the Malaysian royal family, this outlet could confirm the provenance of the tiara with Tengku Ampuan, the queen consort of the sultanate of Pahang. In this case, the princess wore it adorned with four additional brooches.
The Story of the Queen Mary’s Tiara
Queen Mary of Teck, the kleptomaniac wife of King George V and grandmother of Elizabeth II, originally commissioned the manufacture of the tiara in the early 1910s. It was photographed wearing the jewel in several public appearances in the 1930s, including at the Leicester Square premiere of the film The Ghost Goes West (1935) and during a charity gala at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1939.
Known in English as the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau (the term ‘lozenge’ refers to the rhombus shape in which the jewels are arranged), it reflected the Art Deco style of the era and, initially, featured 13 pearls on the top, in addition to the two rows of pearls flanking the diamonds.
Princess Margaret with the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau tiara in 1948.
In 1948, Queen Mary lent it to her granddaughter, Princess Margaret, who wore it (without the pearl-top portion) at the coronation of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. It marked her first official engagement outside Britain, which she attended while her sister Elizabeth was pregnant with Prince Charles. Her last appearance was in a 1965 portrait of Princess Margaret, and since then it had been assumed that the diamond tiara was kept locked in the royal vaults along with other family relics.
However, we now know that the Diamond tiara was sold at auction in New York in 1988, and that Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand recommended to the current queen consort of Pahang that she buy it. She did so, and over the past three decades the tiara has been worn at numerous Malaysian royal events, including weddings, banquets and official portraits. In terms of its value, estimates suggest it could be worth around €4.3 million, based on its craftsmanship, materials, historical significance and links to royalty.
Meghan Markle and Her Wedding Tiara
One of the highlights of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was the surprise appearance of the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau tiara of Queen Mary of Teck, a piece that had not been worn in public since the death of Elizabeth II’s grandmother in 1953. The center of the diadem houses a detachable brooch composed of ten brilliant-cut diamonds. The brooch was a wedding gift from the County of Lincoln to the then Princess Mary in 1893 on the occasion of her marriage to the future King George V.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their wedding day.
The tiara was commissioned by Queen Mary in 1932 to adapt it to this gift. The piece itself was crafted by the prestigious Garrard firm and was designed specifically in platinum and pavé diamonds to securely set and permanently display the brooch. Its surface is perforated with interlaced ovals and densely studded with brilliant-cut diamonds, and it complemented Meghan Markle’s wedding dress, designed by Givenchy.
After Queen Mary’s death, the tiara, along with most of her fabulous jewelry collection, passed into the hands of Queen Elizabeth II. Among the other bandeau-style diadems in her collection is also the sapphire tiara of Maria Feodorovna, which was last worn by Princess Margaret. Another bandeau tiara was used as a base for the emeralds borrowed from the tiara of Grand Duchess Vladimir.
