Queen Mary’s Diamond Lozenge Bandeau

We have a very exciting discovery to share with you today! This week, I am in the Sultanate of Pahang to celebrate the Wedding of Prince Muhammad of Pahang, Tengku Arif Bendahara, the son of the Sultan of Pahang and Tengku Ampuan (Queen) Azizah, and have discovered that Queen Azizah’s Diamond Bandeau Tiara is most probably Queen Mary’s lost Diamond Lozenge Bandeau!

A striking Diamond Bandeau composed of Diamond ‘Lozenges’ set within Diamond and Pearl motifs between a Diamond and Seed Pearl base and top row, the exact origin of this Tiara is unknown but it bears faint maker’s marks for Cartier and seems to date from the first half of the 1910s.

Queen Mary must have commissioned this Diamond Lozenge Bandeau shortly before or during the First World War, but seems to have been most notably worn topped with Pearls taken from either her Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara or the Lover’s Knot Tiara for the Royal Film Premiere of ‘The Ghost Goes West’ at Leicester Square Theatre in London in 1935.

Queen Mary also wore the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau topped with Pearls for a Gala Performance of the Comedie Française at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1939, before wearing it to watch Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Princess at the Sadler’s Wells Theater the following month.

Queen Mary was last pictured wearing the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau for the London Premiere of the Gainsborough film “Magic Bowl” at the Odeon in Marble Arch in 1946.

In 1948, a freshly 18-year old Princess Margaret wore Queen Mary’s Diamond Lozenge Bandeau as her first Tiara for a Gala ‘Sports Fantasy’ showcase at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam following the Inauguration of Queen Juliana of The Netherlands.

When she was eighteen Princess Margaret borrowed a tiara from her grandmother Queen Mary. This diamond bandeau had lozenge-shaped motifs and was originally surmounted by thirteen large oval oriental pearls set on spikes. By 1946, however, Queen Mary had removed the pearls. In September 1948 the eighteen-year-old Princess wore it when on one of her first official engagements she represented King George VI at the Inauguration of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in Amsterdam, the Dutch equivalent of a coronation.

Queen Mary’s Diamond Lozenge Bandeau was also worn by Princess Margaret during the Dutch State Visit to Britain in 1950 and during the Danish State Visit to Britain in 1951, and seems to have been an 18th Birthday Gift from Queen Mary.

Princess Margaret wore Queen Mary’s Diamond Lozenge Bandeau on a few rare occasions into the 1960s, though it does not seem to have been publicly seen after that, leading many to assume it is in the British Royal Vaults. However, it would make sense that Princess Margaret would have discreetly sold the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau around the same time as Queen Mary’s Amethyst Tiara was sold in the late 70s or early 1980s, without any public notice. Though The Beau Monde and I noticed the similarity with a Bandeau belonging to the Queen of Pahang a few months ago, we decided to wait to ask for confirmation.

In 1988, Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand saw a Diamond Bandeau Tiara for sale in New York City and told the then Tengku Puan (Crown Princess) Azizah to buy the Tiara, which was soon shipped off to Malaysia.

Over the years, the Diamond Bandeau Tiara was worn by the then Crown Princess Azizah for numerous Ceremonies and Banquets, including one for the Birthday of late Sultan of Pahang, as well as her Official Portrait as the Tenkgu Puan (Crown Princess) of Pahang.

In 2002, the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau Tiara was worn by Cik Puan Julita Aisha binti Abdul Latif at her wedding to Tengku Abdul Rahman.

Queen Azizah shared a fascinating anecdote of the Diamond Bandeau Tiara being worn by her daughter Tengku Puteri Afzan for a Sports Day at School at a very young age, and more recently for her 21st Birthday in 2021.

The Tiara was also worn by her youngest daughter, Tengku Puteri Jihan, for the Wedding of Tengku Nurul Kamalia in 2008.

More recently, Tengku Puteri Jihan wore the Diamond Lozenge Bandeau for the Banquet held following the Installation of her parents as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) and Raja Permaisuri Agong (Queen) of Malaysia for a five year-term in 2019.

Earlier this week, Tengku Natasya Puteri Tengku Adnan wore the Diamond Bandeau Tiara enhanced with four additional brooches for her Istiadat Berinai Ceremony at the Istana Abdul Aziz.

During the Ceremony, I mentioned my observation of the Diamond Bandeau being the one from Queen Mary to Tengku Ampuan (Queen) Azizah and sent over some images, receiving some promising pictures of the Tiara in return. I went to the Palace last night, where the Queen and I have excitedly come upon the conclusion that her Diamond Bandeau must be the one from Queen Mary, as we cannot find any differences. In our excitement, the Tiara did drop and get slightly damaged but will soon be repaired, no doubt to be worn for years to come!

Over the past two years since I initially published the article, I have been researching the Tiara around the globe to get confirmation of several aspects of my initial hypothesis, with the gracious permission of Her Majesty who has allowed our team to access the Tiara several times and arrange for it’s display in Melbourne. Most extraordinary was a private tour of the Cartier Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, at the end of which Queen Azizah put on the Tiara to the delight of all of us present.

With the extraordinary help of Helen Molesworth, Senior Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, we have been able to confirm that the Diamond Bandeau was created by Cartier in 1909, so our initial visual analysis has proven to be correct.

The tiara occupies a unique transitional space between the ornate, garland-heavy styles of the late nineteenth century and the nascent geometric motifs of Art Deco. The use of seed pearls as a framing device was a hallmark of Cartier’s during the first decade of the twentieth century and a significant stylistic parallel can be found in the iconic Cartier India Tiara, currently in the possession of the Duchess of Gloucester, which utilizes similar rows of seed pearls to define its architectural boundaries, as well as Princess Marie Bonaparte’s Cartier Pearl and Diamond Bandeau, which is displayed in the same case in Melbourne.

However, despite our best efforts, which included a visit to Buckingham Palace, in a multi-faceted approach encompassing visual analysis, archival research, and direct testimony, we have been unable to get definitive confirmation that this particular Tiara is the same one worn by Queen Mary and Princess Margaret, so while it is likely, we are technically unable to link Queen Azizah’s Tiara to the British one just now, though we are confident that we will soon be able to get categorical, irrefutable documentary proof required for a definitive identification.

A deliberate emphasis has been placed on presenting the evidence as indicative of two identical pieces, meticulously avoiding a definitive pronouncement that the tiara in Queen Azizah’s possession was unequivocally the same piece worn by Queen Mary and Princess Margaret. This recognizes that while the visual and circumstantial evidence is compelling, significant gaps in the research still exist. This distinction is crucial for maintaining academic integrity and acknowledging the inherent limitations of historical inquiry when records are incomplete or inaccessible.

Now the culmination of all this research and two years of hard work is that Queen Azizah’s Cartier Diamond Bandeau is on display in the new Cartier Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

I am also delighted to reveal that I will be beginning a Masters at the University of Cambridge later this year, with my research centred around my discovery of the Cartier Tiara in Queen Azizah’s collection as part of a thesis on the adoption and evolution of Tiaras in Malaysia, which will hopefully uncover more of the mysteries connected to this Tiara. I have been in Malaysia this past week as part of my research ahead of coming to Melbourne for the opening of Cartier, where I am currently publishing this article.

I would like to thank Her Majesty Queen Azizah for not only allowing me unprecedented access into her collection but also allowing our team to research and exhibit the Tiara. I would also like to thank and appreciate our Associate Editor Sam Gillespie and Anna from Her Majesty’s team for all their efforts into making an initial comment about putting the Tiara on display into a reality. We couldn’t have gotten here without you!

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Please credit HM Queen Azizah of Pahang and Saad Salman/The Royal Watcher when sharing this discovery! Press inquiries should be directed to royalwatcher@hotmail.com.