Royal Guests and Relatives gave several spectacular Wedding Gifts to Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia when she married Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on this day in 1879, 145 years ago, which included a Fringe Tiara and this Diamond Shamrock Tiara!
Fringe Tiara | Diamond Shamrock Tiara | Turkish Diamonds | Diamond Bow Brooch | Sapphire Brooch | Pearl Brooch | Diamond Sunburst Brooch
Queen Victoria gifted a Diamond Fringe Tiara, inherited from her own mother, to Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia when she married the Duke of Connaught, and from the then Prince and Princess of Wales, later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, the new Duchess received a ‘Diamond Shamrock Tiara’.
Composed of Diamond Shamrocks set within Diamond Scrolls shaped into a Diamond Tiara, almost spaced like a Kokoshnik Tiara. The Shamrocks were a symbolic choice as Connaught was one of the four provinces of Ireland.
The Duchess of Connaught was only pictured wearing the Diamond Shamrock Tiara once, at the Coronation of her nephew, King George V, in 1911, paired with Queen Victoria’s Turkish Diamond Necklace, among a series of other jewels.
The Duke and Duchess of Connaught had three children; Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden, Prince Arthur of Connaught, and Lady Patricia Ramsay, and after bequests to her daughters, in her last will, the Duchess of Connaught bequeathed:
“…all my property real and personal…to my son for his absolute use and benefit in the hope but without intending to create any trust that as regards certain articles of jewellery and furniture he will distribute them in accordance with a memorandum I shall leave for him.”
The fate of the Diamond Shamrock Tiara remains unknown, and while Prince Arthur’s wife, Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, a granddaughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, wore the Connaught Fringe Tiara, she primarily wore the Fife Tiara. Since her only son, the 2nd Duke of Connaught, predeceased his mother, the Duchess ofFIfe’s jewels were inherited by her nephew, the 3rd Duke fo Fife, and Lady Patricia Ramsay, but while the Connaught Fringe Tiara and Queen Victoria’s Turkish Diamond Necklace were sold, the fate of the Diamond Shamrock Tiara remains unknown.
Fringe Tiara | Diamond Shamrock Tiara | Turkish Diamonds | Diamond Bow Brooch | Sapphire Brooch | Pearl Brooch | Diamond Sunburst Brooch
Fringe Tiara
Diamond Shamrock Tiara
Turkish Diamonds
Diamond Bow Brooch
Pearl Brooch
Diamond Sunburst Brooch
Fife Tiara
Fife Fringe Tiara
Connaught Fringe Tiara
Diamond Earrings
Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Chain
Diamond Tiara
Honeysuckle Tiara
Fringe Tiara
Connaught Diamond Bow Brooch
Connaught Pearl Brooch
Maple Leaf Brooch
Art Deco Diamond Brooch
