♔ The Cambridge "Lover's Knot" Tiara

The Cambridge "Lover's Knot" Tiara was made by Garrard in 1913. The tiara was commissioned by Queen Mary, who modeled it off of a tiara owned by her grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse. The design wasn't unique to begin with, several other tiaras exist that are quite similar.

The circlet of the Cambridge "Lover's Knot" Tiara is made up of a lower semi-circular band, set with a row of round brilliant-cut diamonds. Nineteen inverted arches arise from the lower band, also set with round brilliant cut diamonds. Where two adjacent arches meet, a pillar-like structure is formed that rises up and ends in a large round diamond spike. There are nineteen diamonds spikes of this nature, and the size of these diamonds decrease gradually from the center towards both ends.

A combination of lover knots and scroll motifs are placed at the end of each inverted arch. The center of each inverted arch is occupied by a large diamond, from which a large drop-shaped pearl is suspended in the space inside the inverted arch. The largest pearl is exactly in the central arch of the tiara, with nine drop pearls gradually decreasing in size occupying the other nine arches on either side. Thus, the tiara is perfectly symmetrical.

Swinging pearls hand from nineteen diamond arches capped with lover's knots. The tiara was composed of existing jewels Queen Mary already had in her collection. The dismantled Some Ladies of England Tiara, plus the original pearl uprights from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara  with additional pearls from a couple of brooches belonging to Mary were used in the new piece. The original design of the tiara included upright pearls on top of the arches; but Mary later had them removed.

The original design of the tiara

When Mary died in 1953, the tiara passed to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth wore it with some regularity in the early 1950s, but the tiara was eventually put back into storage. Elizabeth later gave the Cambridge "Lover's Knot" Tiara to Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales as a wedding present in 1981.


Diana famously found the tiara to be too heavy and headache-inducing. She often borrowed the lighter-weight Spencer Tiara from her family instead. The tiara was later returned to the Queen after the divorce of Diana and the Prince of Wales.

The Princess of Wales wearing the tiara on several occasions