Princess d'Orléans Tiara
England | ca. 1905 | Platinum and diamonds | Garrard (maker)
The tiara has a platinum base and features thousands of diamonds forming a delicate floral pattern. This extraordinary treasure is a perfect example of the Belle Epoque style, an era of peace and prosperity at the end of the 19th century, combined with technological and technical advances that led to a gradual shift in the preference for jewelry from opulence to refinement and lightness, also a period marked by the use of platinum.
In the early 19th century, the British Crown decided that only one jeweler could be responsible for the production of the British crown jewels or scepters during the same period, and around 1843, Garrard took over this distinction, holding the royal guarantee until 2007 in the name of "Her Majesty's Goldsmith and Master of the Crown Jewels". The royal guarantee is subject to regular assessment and automatically expires upon the death of the monarch in rule. It is therefore a privilege for a jeweler to have held the royal guarantee continuously for over 160 years under different monarchs.
Princess Louise d'Orléans wearing the tiara
The former owner of this crown, Princess Louise of Orléans, was the great-grandmother of the present King Felipe VI of Spain. Louise was born in France, the youngest of the Duke of Paris' four daughters (grandson of Louis-Philippe, the last king of France). At four years old, the French Republic decided to expel her father, and Princess Orléans went into exile with him. In 1907, she married Infante Carlos, a Spanish prince from the Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
