This tiara divides royal and jewellery fans because of its design, but the Cartier aquamarine pineflower tiara is a regular – albeit less frequently in rotation – feature in Princess Anne’s collection.
The name comes from the pineflowers (also known as pinecones) that form the design of the headpiece.
It was made by Cartier in 1937 and displays alternating pinecone motifs and large emerald cut aquamarine stones set in platinum. Unusually the base band features the blue stones too (most tiaras feature only diamonds in their band, I have always assumed to provide more impact to coloured stones above, and since the band may be covered by hair when worn); a thinner diamond band sits above it.
Where each upright emerald stone meets the band, you have vertical bands of diamonds.
The pinecones themselves are created from clusters of pear-shaped aquamarines, with curved bars of diamonds that help create the shape of a cone.
The tiara was owned by the Queen Mother and passed to her granddaughter. Elizabeth received the tiara as a silver wedding anniversary gift in 1948 from her husband, George VI.
She only wore it on a couple of occasions in her life and offered it to her granddaughter as a wedding gift in 1973.
Though the photos are grainy of Queen Elizabeth, we can see that the shape is a little different to the one that Princess Anne wears, and in previous photos of the Princess: there used to be a central, round pinecone motif but this has been switched for a central emerald-cut stone instead, flanked by the pinecones, while the sides dipped in more of a swooping shape (these are now flatter, more gradual curves).
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This central pineflower was made into a brooch, which we often see Anne wear with the tiara. The remodel also left spare stones, which she had made into a necklace and possibly the earrings too, though unconfirmed; they are also a different style which sheds doubt on this theory, but are worn together often.
The shape works much better now, though such large emerald cut stones do tend to make designs feel more clunky unless combined with elegant lines or scrolling in my opinion…
Anne tends to wear her Meander tiara or Festoon tiara more frequently, however.
The pineflower tiara was worn for an official birthday portrait to mark the Princess’ 75th birthday and used in the Royal Mint commemorative coin design too.
Thanks to its feature in the V&A’s fantastic Cartier exhibition, we were able to get up close with this tiara. It was removed in September for use in the US State Banquet at Windsor.
