The Patiala Lover's Knot Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Rajmata Mohinder Kaur of Patiala; tiara detail; Rajmata Mohinder Kaur of Patiala; tiara detail

I mentioned on Tuesday that there were several lover's knot tiaras floating around these days -- the more precise number is actually five. There's the Cambridge Lover's Knot Tiara in Britain, the Bavarian one we discussed earlier this week, one that belongs (belonged?) to the Savoys, one that belonged the Yussupovs (a Russian aristocratic family), and this one, which is maybe the one that fascinates me most of all.

This is the lover's knot tiara once owned by the Maharajahs of Patiala. It's not clear exactly when the piece was made, or by whom, but the woman photographed wearing the tiara is Maharini Mohinder Kaur, the second wife of the Maharajah Yadavindra Singh. The two married in 1938; not quite ten years later, the couple saw the transition from British power to Indian independence. He became a diplomat and died in The Hague in the 1970s while serving as an ambassador; she's still alive today and is the rajmata, or queen mother, of Patiala.

This is speculation on my part, but I would suggest that it's possible that this lover's knot tiara was a twentieth-century piece inspired by Queen Mary's Cambridge version, given the strong ties between Britain and India. After all, it was Maharani Bakhtawar Kaur (mother of Maharajah Yadavindra Singh) who presented Queen Mary with the Delhi Durbar necklace in 1911 on behalf of the Maharinis of India.

For more on this tiara:
Lovers knots Tiara

The Manchester Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): tiara detail; tiara detail; Helena Montagu, Duchess of Manchester; tiara detail

If you're a fan of Downton Abbey or the novels of Edith Wharton, you'll be familiar with the stories of American heiresses who married titled, impoverished Englishman. This tiara belonged to an extremely rich American woman, Consuelo Ynzaga de Valle, who did just that.

Born in Louisiana, Consuelo was the daughter of a Cuban diplomat and his American wife. She was one of the first of the "buccaneers," women who crossed the Atlantic to marry into aristocratic English families. In 1876, she married Viscount Mandeville, who later succeeded his father as Duke of Manchester. But the marriage was short-lived, as the duke died in 1892.

Consuelo, now the dowager duchess, was too young and vibrant to go away quietly. She became a close friend of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and she continued to move in vaunted social circles. And in 1903, she decided that she wanted a new tiara. She commissioned Cartier in Paris to make this gigantic sparkler, which is set with more than a thousand diamonds (most of which she supplied herself -- not too shabby). The tiara is also an unusually wide piece, set on a smaller suspended base.

If you'd like to marvel at this tiara in person, you're in luck: today, the piece is a part of the collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It's actually owned by the British government, which accepted the tiara in lieu of inheritance taxes from the Manchester family. Ah, nobility.

For more on this tiara:
V&A: Manchester Tiara

The Bavarian Lover's Knot Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Crown Princess Antonia of Bavaria; Queen Therese of Bavaria; tiara detail; Queen Therese of Bavaria; tiara detail

Tiara lovers these days are probably more familiar with another lover's knot tiara -- the Cambridge tiara from the Windsor collection -- but it was actually a copy made of a series of look-a-like tiaras from the nineteenth century. But more on that later -- the lover's knot tiara that we're looking at today is one once owned by the former royal family of Bavaria.

The original wearer of this lover's knot tiara, which features large pearls set atop the diamond lover's knot motifs, was Queen Therese of Bavaria. It was made by Casper Rieländer, the court jeweller, in 1825, the same year that Therese's husband, King Ludwig, ascended to the Bavarian throne. Queen Therese certainly deserved some spectacular jewels; Ludwig was renowned for his numerous extramarital affairs (including his notorious liaison with Lola Montez, an affair so problematic that it actually led to his abdication).

When Therese and Ludwig's son, Otto, married Duchess Amalia of Oldenburg, Therese gave the tiara to her new daughter-in-law. In one of those strange twists of fate, Otto had recently been elected king of Greece by an international conference looking to create a stable government for the newly-independent Greeks. And so the tiara passed from one queen's hands to another's, and it became a part of the Greek royal collection.

Otto and Amalia didn't succeed as rulers of Greece; she was deeply unpopular, and he was eventually deposed in favor of Prince George of Denmark. They returned to Bavaria in exile, and the tiara came with them. The lover's knot stayed with the family for many years; the last crown princess of Bavaria, Princess Antonia, was photographed in it even after the monarchy was abolished in 1918. Today, the tiara is displayed in the Residenz Museum in Munich.

For more on this tiara:
Lovers knots Tiara

The Baden Palmette Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; Princess Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg; Grand Duchess Louise of Baden; tiara detail

One of Queen Margrethe's favorite tiaras, the Baden Palmette, is just about the perfect sparkler for a late February Monday. Valentine's Day may have come and gone, but this tiara's heart-shaped motifs are always romantic!

The tiara is originally a German piece, made in the mid-nineteenth century by Koch. It was a wedding gift from King Wilhelm of Prussia (who later became the first German kaiser) to his daughter, Princess Louise, who married Grand Duke Frederick of Baden in 1856. Their daughter, Victoria, married King Gustaf V of Sweden and brought the tiara with her to Stockholm (along with another rather familiar diadem, the Baden Fringe). When Victoria died in 1930, her granddaughter, Princess Ingrid, inherited the tiara; when Ingrid married Frederik IX of Denmark five years later, she brought the tiara with her to her new country.

Queen Ingrid died in 2000, and her impressive jewel collection has filtered through the royal and princely families of Denmark, Greece, and Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. Queen Margrethe was the lucky inheritor of this lovely tiara, and she wears it often. It's easy to see why: it's elegant, playful, and (most importantly for a tiara) small and therefore likely quite comfortable.

For more on this tiara:
Mad Hattery's TiaraPedia (Denmark)

Weekend Bonus: The Boucheron Honeycomb Tiara

Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom (1900-2002) wears the Boucheron Honeycomb Tiara

Weekend Bonus: The Turquoise Daisy Bandeau Tiara

Queen Ingrid of Denmark (1910-2000), then Princess Ingrid of Sweden, wears the Turquoise Daisy Bandeau Tiara

The Noor-ol-Ain Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Empress Farah Pahlavi; tiara detail; Empress Farah Pahlavi

You know you're an empress when you get to wear one of the largest pink diamonds in the world, the sixty-carat Noor-ol-Ain, in your wedding tiara. Such was the luck of Farah Diba, the last empress of Iran, at her wedding to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

The Noor-ol-Ain was found in an Indian diamond mine long before it adorned Farah's wedding tiara. It was brought to Iran by soldiers who had raided Delhi in the 1700s. But the tiara in which it is currently mounted is signficantly newer; the piece, which is packed with additional pink, yellow, and white diamonds, was made in 1958 by Harry Winston specifically for the imperial wedding.

After the 1979 revolution, this tiara remained in Iran with the rest of the country's crown jewels. If you're in Tehran, and you'd like to see it in person, you can find the tiara on display at the National Treasury in the country's Central Bank.

For more on this tiara:
Iran Chamber Society: Iranian National -Royal- Jewels

The Savoy Tourmaline Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): tiara detail; Princess Marina of Savoy; Princess Clotilde of Savoy; tiara detail; tiara detail

I think it's long past time that we dipped into the jewel collection of the Savoys, don't you? The former royal family of Italy retains some significant pieces, not the least of which is the tiara from the pink tourmaline parure.

The stones in this piece are often misidentified as pink topazes rather than tourmalines, and originally the jewels were set with garnets instead. Unusually for a major royal tiara, this piece has stayed in Italy throughout its history. It originally belonged to Queen Maria Theresa of Sardinia, a member of the Tuscan branch of the Habsburg family who died in 1855. Her son Ferdinand, the Duke of Genoa, inherited the tiara, but he died only a month after his mother. His wife, Princess Elisabeth of Saxony, continued to wear the tiara, eventually bequeathing it to her daughter Margherita of Savoy.

Margherita married King Umberto I of Italy, and it has remained with their descendants to this day. Prince Vittorio Emanuele, the current pretender to the Italian throne, now owns the piece, and his wife, the water-skiing Princess Marina, dons it occasionally. The tourmalines had their most significant public outing in recent years at the wedding of Vittorio Emanuele and Marina's son, Emanuele Filiberto, to French actress Clothilde Courau.

The Hohenlohe Floral Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg; tiara detail; tiara detail; Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

One of my very favorite floral tiaras is owned by the German house of Hohenlohe-Langenburg: this lovely diamond floral tiara with delicate pink stones. There are many mysteries around this piece: who made it, when it was made, precisely who owns it now. There are even debates over whether the stones are pink topazes or rare pink diamonds or sapphires.

We do know that it adorned the head of Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg at her religious wedding to Max Soltmann in 2006. Xenia is the sister of the current head of the princely house, Prince Philipp; she is also related to another, even more famous Prince Philip, as her grandmother was Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark, big sister of the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Westminster Bagration Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster; tiara detail; Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster; tiara detail

The pink spinel tiara now owned by the Duke of Westminster has roots centuries and miles from present-day London. The tiara was created in the world of imperial Russia.

The Bagrations were the rulers of the kingdom of Georgia for centuries until the country was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801. This tiara was made only a few years later by Fossin (the same company which would later become Chaumet) for the beautiful and controversial Princess Catherine Bagration. Catherine was an incredibly independent and influential woman who took lovers, wore revealing muslin dresses, held political salons in Vienna, and even garnered a mention in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Not too shabby.

In the 1970s, the tiara was sold at auction to the Duke of Westminster, one of the richest men in the United Kingdom. He gave the sparkler as an engagement present to his fiancee, Natalia Phillips, who wore the tiara at their wedding in 1978. A historical Russian tiara was an especially fitting gift for the duchess: she is a direct descendent of both Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and the famous poet Alexander Pushkin.

For more on this tiara:
Bagration Parure

The Württemberg Topaz Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): tiara detail; tiara detail; Princess Marie of Württemberg; tiara detail

Time for another whopper from Württemberg! This is the tiara from the family's pink topaz parure, a collection of jewels that also includes two bracelets, a pair of earrings, and a brooch. The large pink topaz stones apparently were sourced from Russia.

The wearer of the gems was Princess Marie of Württemberg, one of a trio of princesses from the principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont who made brilliant royal marriages. Marie's husband, William, would eventually become king of Württemberg; her sister Emma married the king of the Netherlands, and her sister Helena married the Duke of Albany, one of the sons of Queen Victoria.

Unfortunately, Marie did not have long to wear her lovely pink jewels: she died in childbirth in 1882, only five years after her marriage. Her husband's second wife, Charlotte, would become the last queen of Württemberg.

Unlike some of the Württemberg jewels, this tiara is not a part of the permanent state collection. The entire parure was sold, and today it is owned by Thomas Faerber. The Faerber Collection is based in Geneva, but pieces are regularly exhibited all over the globe.

For more on this tiara:
Pink Topaz Tiara Marie Princess of Wuerttemberg

The Isenburg Floral Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Archduchess Katharina  of Austria-Este; Archduchess Katharina  of Austria-Este; Princess Sophie of Prussia; Princess Sophie of Prussia; Archduchess Katharina  of Austria-Este

Let's head to Germany to round out our week of recent royal brides and their tiaras, shall we? This lovely piece is the family tiara of the von Isenburgs, who used to rule a principality in what is now central Germany.

The Isenburgs are best known today for the royal marriages made by their daughters. Family tradition includes the wearing of this diamond floral tiara, along with an antique veil that dates back to the early nineteenth century. Princess Katharina wore the tiara at her wedding to Archduke Martin of Austria-Este (the brother of Prince Lorenz of Belgium) in 2004. Although some reports erroneously suggested she wore the Savoy-Aosta tiara owned by her new mother-in-law, it was the Isenburg floral tiara that anchored Katharina's veil.

The most recent Isenburg bride to sport the tiara was Princess Sophie, who married Prince Georg of Prussia in 2011. If Germany had never abolished their monarchy, Georg would today be the kaiser. Sophie (who recently welcomed twin sons -- congratulations!) also wore a Prussian family diadem on her wedding day ... but more on that later!

For more on this tiara:
Mad Hattery's TiaraPedia (Germany)

The Khedive of Egypt Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg; Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden; tiara detail; Queen Ingrid of Denmark; Queen Anne-Marie of Greece

If there's a more romantic royal wedding tiara around today than the Cartier tiara given to the Swedish royals by the Khedive of Egypt, I've yet to stumble across it. A truly romantic backstory plus its use by a veritable passel of royal brides solidifies that status for me.

The tiara's story begins even before the piece's creation. Princess Margaret of Connaught, the niece of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, was on a royal tour with her parents, who wanted to marry their daughters off to suitable royal spouses. They had their eye on the future king of Sweden, Gustaf VI Adolf, as a prospective partner for Margaret's sister, Princess Patricia. They rendezvous-ed with Gustaf in Cairo, where he immediately fell in love -- but with the wrong sister. It didn't matter, in the end; Margaret was in love with him, too. Gustaf proposed to her during a dinner at the British Consulate, and the two were married at Windsor in 1905.

As the young couple had met in his country, it was important that the Khedive of Egypt -- the governor of the country, which was ruled by the British at the time -- give them a suitable wedding present. He commissioned Cartier to make this tiara for the occasion. Margaret wore it during her time as Sweden's crown princess, but she died before she could become queen. Instead, the tiara traveled to Denmark with her daughter, Ingrid, who married the future King Frederik IX.

Ingrid did not wear the tiara at her own wedding, but it has become the official wedding tiara of all of her female descendants. So far, the wearers include Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; Princess Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg; her two daughters, Princess Alexandra and Princess Nathalie; Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (who inherited the tiara from her mother); and her elder daughter, Princess Alexia. There are several more potential Khedive brides in the future: we'll see how many choose to continue the tradition!

For more on this tiara:
Weekend Bonus: Crown Princess Margareta wears the tiara
Mad Hattery's TiaraPedia (Greece)
Royal Jewels of the World: The Khedive of Egypt Cartier Tiara

The Lannoy Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): tiara detail; Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Luxembourg; tiara detail; Countess Christine of Limburg-Stirum

One of the world's newest royals wore this petite diamond tiara at her 2012 wedding. Countess Stéphanie of Lannoy chose to wear her family's tiara on the day she married Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg, rather than one of the showstopping diamond tiaras from her new royal family's extensive collection.

The Lannoy tiara may be smaller than some, but it is absolutely jam-packed with diamonds -- almost 300 of them! -- including the large pear-shaped diamond that sits atop the sparkler. It was made in 1878 by Altenloh, a Belgian jeweler who also supplied pieces to other Belgian royals and aristocrats. The tiara was also worn by Stéphanie's sisters and sisters-in-law at their weddings, so by choosing the tiara, she was continuing the Lannoy family tradition.

Beyond tradition, however, the wearing of her family's tiara was yet another way for Stéphanie to remember her mother, who died shortly before the wedding. And now that she's the wife of the heir, she'll have plenty of time to pilfer through her new family's tiara stash!

For more on this tiara:
Luxembourg: Luxarazzi 101: Lannoy Family Tiara

The Dutch Laurel Wreath Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Parma; Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands; Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands; tiara detail; Princess Margriet of the Netherlands; Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands

Many royal families have one dedicated wedding tiara. However, the Dutch royals tend to have a few tiaras that have graced the heads of royal brides. The most recently worn of these pieces is the family's laurel wreath tiara, also sometimes called the bandeau à la grecque (because the laurel wreath motif is a traditionally Greek design).

The laurel wreath tiara is one of the oldest pieces in the Dutch collection, but there are two competing theories about its arrival in the family's vaults. One posits that the tiara originally belonged to Princess Louise of Orange-Nassau, the sister of King Willem I of the Netherlands. Princess Louise died in the early nineteenth century, which would be just about right for the presumed creation date of the tiara.

The other theory suggests that the antique tiara is a more recent purchase, acquired in the 1950s by Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard and given to the current Queen Beatrix to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. Beatrix received the tiara as a gift whether it was newly purchased or dug out of the depths of the family's collection. She also shared the tiara with two of her sisters, Princess Margriet and Princess Christina.

In recent years, however, the focus has been on the Dutch brides who have worn the tiara. Laurentien Brinkhorst wore the diadem at her wedding to Beatrix's son, Prince Constantijn, in 2001. And the most recent family bride, the queen's niece, Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Parma, wore it at her 2012 wedding to Albert Brenninkmeijer.

For more on this tiara:
Weekend Bonus: Queen Beatrix wears the tiara
Mad Hattery's TiaraPedia (Netherlands)
Laurel Wreath Tiara

The Small Nassau Floral Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Archduchess Adélaïde of Austria; Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria, Countess of Limburg-Stirum; Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg; Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg; Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg

Not much is known about the provenance of the smaller of the two floral tiaras owned by the grand ducal family of Luxembourg. The piece was worn by the current grand duchess, Maria Teresa, when she was still the hereditary grand duchess. 

Maria Teresa's mother-in-law, Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte, was not especially fond of sharing when it came to her daughter-in-law and the family's jewel collection, so it's possible that the tiara was either a piece of relatively little historical importance or a diadem acquired especially for Maria Teresa. (The former seems more likely.)

Today, the tiara is most frequently worn by Maria Teresa's daughter, Princess Alexandra. But the piece is also becoming something of a traditional wedding tiara for one branch of the family: it has featured in two Habsburg family weddings in recent years. Archduchess Marie Astrid is the elder sister of Grand Duke Henri, and her daughter, Archduchess Marie Christine, and daughter-in-law, Archduchess Adélaïde, have both worn the tiara as brides, pairing it with a Habsburg family veil.

For more on this tiara:
Mad Hattery's TiaraPedia (Luxembourg)

The Niarchos Ruby Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Queen Sofía of Spain; tiara detail; Queen Sofía of Spain; Queen Sofía of Spain

If you're searching for a versatile tiara, look no further than the set of rubies owned by Queen Sofía of Spain. This tiara has been worn in two forms: with one strand of rubies set on a frame, as well as with two strands stacked to form a more substantial diadem.

The rubies, made by Van Cleef & Arpels, were given as a wedding gift to Sofía in 1962 by Stavros Niarchos, the famous Greek shipping magnate (Sofía was born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark). The set also includes several necklaces and bracelets of various lengths. She wore the Niarchos rubies more frequently in years past, but she's also been seen wearing the single-strand version of the tiara in recent years.

Sofía's set of rubies is similar to those owned by another member of the Greek royal family: Marina, the wife of Prince Michael of Greece. Audrey Hepburn also owned a similar necklace by Van Cleef & Arpels.

The Milford Haven Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): tiara detail; Lady Penelope Mountbatten; tiara detail; Nadejda Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven

Rubies and intricate workmanship are the hallmarks of this kokoshnik tiara, which was once owned by the family of the Marquess of Milford Haven. But rather than originating from the Milford Havens' British home, this tiara is rooted in the Romanov dynasty of Russia.

The tiara was made by Bolin in 1890 for Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, who was a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I. Michael gave the tiara to his new wife, Countess Sophie of Merenberg, the following year. Sophie was well-connected -- her family had noble roots, and her grandfather was a little-known Russian figure named Alexander Pushkin -- but Tsar Alexander III would not recognize her union with Michael as a legal or dynastic marriage, and the couple were exiled from Russia.

Sophie took the tiara along as they hopped from European country to European country, producing three children in the process. After the family settled in England, their second daughter, Nadejda, married Prince George of Battenberg (the uncle of the current Duke of Edinburgh) in 1916. Following the Battenbergs' renunciation of their German titles and the death of George's father, George and Nada became the Marquess and Marchioness of Milford Haven. The new marchioness also inherited her mother's ruby kokoshnik tiara.

The tiara remained with the Milford Havens until fairly recently, when Nada's son's family decided to sell the tiara. They looked for Russian buyers, and the tiara went on display at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in 2004. Although it has been reported that the tiara eventually was sold at auction, its exact whereabouts today are unknown (to me, at least -- someone somewhere knows where it is!).

For more on this tiara:
Countess's wedding tiara back in the city

The Princess Ashraf Ruby Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Princess Ashraf Pahlavi; tiara detail; tiara detail; Princess Ashraf Pahlavi

When you're the twin sister of an emperor, you need a serious tiara. The ruby tiara owned by Princess Ashraf of Iran, sister of the last Shah, is no exception.

The tiara, which Ashraf wore at her brother's coronation in 1967, was made in France by Van Cleef & Arpels. Ashraf was something of a modernizer during her years in Iran; she was one of the first female members of the imperial family to appear unveiled, and she also served as a delegate to the United Nations. Along with the rest of the Pahlavi family, however, she left Iran following the 1979 revolution. Today, she lives a quiet life in Paris.

Although Ashraf left the country, her ruby tiara remained in Iran. Today, the tiara is a part of the exhibition of Iran's crown jewels, housed at the country's Central Bank in Tehran.

For more on this tiara:
Glitter in the Evening
Ruby Diamond Tiara of Princess Ashraf Pahlavi of Iran

The Ruby Peacock Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Princess Máxima  of the Netherlands; Princess Máxima  of the Netherlands; Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands; Princess Irene of the Netherlands

Ever since the news of Queen Bea's abdication, I've been reading a ton about the Dutch royals -- and how better to feed that current obsession than to feature the family's unusual and striking Ruby Peacock Tiara today?

The tiara itself was made in 1897 by Schürmann during the reign of Queen Wilhelmina, though the rubies in the piece were apparently owned by Queen Sophie, who died in 1877. The central peacock element is detachable and can be worn separately.

Most of the Dutch tiaras are a part of a family foundation designed to keep the royal collection intact. However, this piece has floated around within the family a bit. Wilhelmina gave the tiara to one of her granddaughters, Princess Irene (sister of Queen Beatrix), even though she'd scandalized the family with her marriage to Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Parma. Irene wore the tiara for years, and then it disappeared from public view for some time.

But it's quite possible that the tiara has finally found its way into the family foundation, because it is found its way back onto Dutch royal heads. Princess Maxima has worn the tiara several times, and Queen Beatrix has also been photographed in the piece. It seems this rogue tiara has found its way back to the palace rather than taking the usual path, which often leads straight to the auction block.

For more on this tiara:
Weekend Bonus: Queen Wilhelmina wears the tiara
Peacock Tail Parure

The Rosenborg Kokoshnik Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Countess Ruth of Rosenborg; tiara detail; Countess Ruth of Rosenborg; tiara detail

Today's tiara is one that almost left a royal family last year -- and may end up on the auction block again in the future. It's the kokoshnik tiara owned by the Rosenborgs, a branch of the Danish royal family.

The tiara, which is studded with diamonds, garnets, and pearls, was made by Dragsted in the early 1930s. The commissioned piece was ordered by Prince Viggo, Count of Rosenborg, as a present for his American wife, Eleanor. Viggo and Eleanor didn't have any children, and the tiara was left to Viggo's sister-in-law, Princess Margaretha, who in turn bequeathed the piece to her son, Count Flemming of Rosenborg.

Count Flemming's wife, Ruth, wore the tiara at major royal events for many years. The tiara remains in the Rosenborg family following Flemming's death in 2002 and Ruth's in 2010, but in June 2012, the tiara was offered for sale at Bukowskis, an auction house in Stockholm. However, the piece did not sell, and so remains with the family -- at least for now.

For more on this tiara:
An Important Diamond Kokoshnik Style Tiara

The Turquoise Daisy Bandeau Tiara

Photos (clockwise from top left): Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark; Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

It's always perfect when you can wear a tiara that shares your name, isn't it? Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is nicknamed "Daisy," and she often sports this turquoise and diamond bandeau tiara featuring a row of tiny bejeweled daisies.

Margrethe inherited this tiara from her late mother, Queen Ingrid, in 2000. Ingrid reportedly inherited the piece from her own mother, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden (who was also nicknamed "Daisy"). Some sources suggest that the bandeau was a gift to Margaret from her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught (who also happened to be the son and daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria).

Margrethe is the primary wearer of the tiara, but in 2012, she lent it to her niece, Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark, to wear at a gala event in honor of the queen's Ruby Jubilee. Lucky Theodora has many bejeweled relatives to borrow from: her mother is the former queen of Greece, and her aunts include Queen Margrethe, Princess Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Queen Sofia of Spain, and Princess Irene of Greece!

For more on this tiara:
Weekend Bonus: Queen Ingrid wearing the tiara
Mad Hattery's TiaraPedia (Denmark)