Camilla Parker-Bowles: Duchess Wears Stunning Tiara At Buckingham Palace, Is It From The Royal Family?
Camilla Parker-Bowles had on a different tiara Tuesday when she and Prince Charles appeared at Buckingham Palace for an event hosted by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. The diamond encrusted tiara doesn’t belong to the royal family, Hello magazine reports. Royal watchers say it’s actually a family heirloom from Camilla’s maternal grandmother, Sonia Rosemary Cubitt, Baroness Ashcombe.
The Duchess of Cornwall also wore diamond earrings and a four-string pearl necklace at the reception held for members of the diplomatic corps.
Daily Mail gives some history of the exquisite tiara Camilla wore when she attended the reception with the Prince of Wales, who was wearing a uniform adorned with a chest full of numerous medals.
Camilla wore the Cubitt-Shand tiara when she married her first husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles, in 1973. Her daughter, Laura, also wore the tiara when she married Harry Lopes in 2006.
The Duchess is most often seen wearing the Greville tiara, which is a royal family piece. The Queen Mother wore the tiara that was designed in 1921 by Boucheron jewelers for British society hostess Margaret Greville. It became the Queen Mother’s crown piece in 1942, Artemisia’s Royal Jewels reveals. The impressive jewel boasts a honeycomb-pattern design.
Camilla Parker-Bowles does have quite a collection of royal family jewelry on loan to her from the queen, however. She wears a lot of other pieces from the Queen Mother’s collection, according to Artemisia’s.
Jewels gifted to the Duchess by Her Majesty — but, are considered “Crown property” — include the Saudi Parures, Boucheron, and Teck Crescent tiaras. Parker-Bowles also wears pieces that once belonged to British queens like Victoria’s diamond and sapphire brooch, Alexandra’s heart-shaped amethyst brooch, and Mary’s Delhi Durbar tiara.
Some of the items Prince Charles’ wife wears come from her own family yet have a “royal connection through Alice Keppel, the most famous of Edward VII’s favorites and Camilla’s direct ancestress,” the site explains. It goes on to say that Charles bought back a lot of Keppel pieces for Camilla that have been sold over the years. She’s worn the Keppel tiara/necklace, which was a gift from King Edward in the royal collection. The Duchess has access to a variety of pearls, necklaces, and chokers.
All women of the royal family wear magnificent diamonds and other gems in the form of tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, chokers, and brooches. They have their pick when it comes to what piece is worn at any given royal function. Camilla Parker-Bowles is married to the prince next in line to the throne, so she has quite a selection to choose from.
[Image via Hello]
