Royal bling: The Vladimir Tiara

Royal jewelry and especially tiara's mostly have a wonderful and sometimes surprising history. In this blogpost we take a closer look to the Vladimir TiaraThe Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, sometimes the Diamond and Pearl Tiara, was bought, along with a diamond rivière, by Queen Mary from Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia, mother of the Duchess of Kent, in 1921 for a price of £28,000. 

Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna and her mother Source picture: Wikipedia

The grand duchess, known after her marriage as Princess Nicholas of Greece, inherited it from her mother, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, who received it as a wedding gift from her husband in 1874. It originally had 15 large drop pearls, and was made by the jeweller Carl Edvard Bolin at a cost of 48,200 rubles.

Princess Mary of Teck wearing the Vladimir Tiara. More about Princess Mary of Teck on this link.

Source picture: Wikipedia

During the Russian Revolution in 1917, the tiara was hidden with other jewels somewhere in Vladimir Palace in Petrograd, and later saved from Soviet Russia by Albert Stopford, a British art dealer and secret agent. In the years to follow, Princess Nicholas sold pieces of jewellery from her collection to support her exiled family and various charities. Queen Mary had the tiara altered to accommodate 15 of the Cambridge cabochon emeralds. The original drop pearls can easily be replaced as an alternative to the emeralds. Elizabeth II inherited the tiara directly from her grandmother in 1953. 

It is almost exclusively worn together with the Cambridge and Delhi Durbar parures, also containing large emeralds. Elizabeth wore the tiara in her official portrait as Queen of Canada as none of the Commonwealth realms besides the United Kingdom have their own crown jewels.

👉 More Royal Bling? Read also the blogpost about the  Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara on this link

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