During this month’s Diplomatic Reception, The Princess of Wales was seen to be wearing the Lotus Flower Tiara.
It has been in the Royal Family’s possession for decades, having been passed down from the Queen Mother. We’ve got all the details on the tiara below.
The Lotus Flower Tiara – also known as the Papyrus Tiara – was, in fact, originally a necklace.
The Princess of Wales wears the Lotus Flower Tiara at the 2022 Diplomatic Reception
The Queen Mother received the necklace from her husband, George VI, as a wedding gift. The couple married in 1923, becoming the Duke and Duchess of York.
This Greek patterned item consisted of pendant diamonds and pearls; it was then given to Garrard’s and fashioned into the delicate headpiece.
The diamonds were set into the art-deco fanned motifs complete, with diamond arches above these fans. Each segment is topped with a large, central pearl and two smaller pearls at the base, joining the adjacent segments with scrolls of diamonds. It is a firm favourite of royal jewel fans!
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The tiara was famously worn by the Queen Mother in a number of portraits seen in the 1920s, more as a headband in the style of the age, and in 1937, she loaned the piece to her elder sister, Mary, for the coronation of King George VI. She was the mother of Margaret Rhodes, a cousin of Elizabeth II’s, who acted as a confidant and lady-in-waiting to the Monarch.
The Queen Mother passed the Lotus Flower headpiece down to her daughter, Princess Margaret. Margaret, in turn, loaned the tiara to Serena Stanhope (her daughter-in-law), to wear on her wedding day in 1993.
After Princess Margaret’s death, the tiara was returned to the late Queen, living in her jewellery vault for decades.
Back in 2013, the then-Duchess of Cambridge wore it for the first time in for a Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace, and again at the Chinese State Banquet in 2015.
The Duchess of Cambridge with Chinese President Xi Jinping, toasting at the state banquet on the first day of his state visit to the UK – 2015.
It was also one of the tiaras many royal watchers thought Meghan Markle might wear on her wedding day in 2018.
