Royal British Tiaras: The Boucheron Loop Tiara

Another one bites the dust. It was a common refrain when discussing Queen Mary and her tiaras. Just when folks would fall in love with one of her lovely tiaras, she’d get a wild hair and have it dismantled to make a different piece of jewelry. And so goes the Boucheron Loop Tiara.

Sadly, this pretty piece wasn’t long lived. While on a grand eight month tour of the British Empire with her husband, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, as they were known at that time, toured many far off lands. Canada, Australia and Africa, to name a few. While in Africa, the future Queen was granted a gift of 675 diamonds from De Beers (if only we could be as lucky).

It was with those diamonds upon her return that Mary tapped Boucheron (a curious choice, since she later came to favor the crown jeweler Garrard much more so than Boucheron) to create a spectacular tiara for her. And so in 1902, the Boucheron Loop Tiara was born. It consisted of upright diamond loops, filled with separate diamond elements and also separated by the same. Each of the elements was fastened with thin wire, making it appear as if they were floating, making it appear magical if not also very delicate.

She was photographed in it at least once (in all her coronation finery from her father-in-law’s coronation – did you see all of the diamonds in that photo?!) and then like so many pieces before and after, it was dismantled. Mary was a woman who liked to rework her jewels and in 1911 the diamonds from the Boucheron Loop were used to make the Delhi Durbar Tiara, which we featured last week, a tiara she had made to celebrate her own husband’s coronation. But our question for you is which do you prefer? The Loop or the Dunbar? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. And stay tuned in the weeks to come for some more tiaras of Mary’s that are no more.