♔ The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara

The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara with emeralds 

The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara with pearls

The Grand Duchess Vladimir, also known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, wife of the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, was the aunt of Tsar Nicholas II. She had a magnificent jewel collection, but the Vladimir Tiara  is one of her most dazzling pieces. The tiara has 15 intertwined diamond circles, strung together with a diamond ribbon on the top and hung with articulating pendant pearls. The tiara was made in 1874 by Bollin, the Russian court jeweler.

Queen Mary and Elizabeth wearing the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara with the pearl pendants

The Grand Duchess hid the tiara in a vault at Vladimir Palace in 1918 during the revolution. The tiara, among other jewels, remained in the vault until a friend of family managed to smuggled the jewels out of the country for the Grand Duchess. The jewels were carried out in a plain bag. Once her jewels were finally returned to her, she split them up among her four children before her death in Paris in 1920. The tiara went to her daughter, Princess Nicholas of Greece. The Princess later sold her jewels to benefit her family and Russian charities. The tiara was sold to Queen Mary in 1921. Mary had to have some repairs done to the tiara, as the journey hadn't been kind to the fine-crafted jewel. 

Queen Mary and Elizabeth wearing the tiara with emerald pendants

Mary paid £ 28,000 for the tiara. Once it was in her hands, the Queen, of course, couldn't leave it alone. She was also in possession of the Cambridge emeralds, a group of around 40 emeralds which had belonged to Indian royalty, but had made their way into British hands. Mary incorporated the emeralds into new and existing royal pieces. 

Queen Mary who had an intimate knowledge of jewelry and their designing, added 15 stones, which originally topped the Delhi Durbar Tiara, as an alternative to the dangling pearls in 1924. Accordingly, she got the court jewelers Garrard & Co.  to cut and polish fifteen of her Cambridge emeralds into a drop-shaped fashion, and replaced the pearls with the emerald drops. 

The tiara was later inherited by Queen Elizabeth II on Mary's death in 1953, along with the rest of Mary's jewel collection. The Queen has worn the tiara on several occasions, alternating between the pearls and the emerald drops. She has also worn the tiara a few times in a third version, with no pendants at all. 

The tiara with no pendants