Today marks the 140th Anniversary of the Birth of Crown Princess Cecilie of Prussia, who was born on this day in 1886! The daughter of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia , she married the last German Crown Prince and had a splendid jewellery collection, full of old family heirlooms and contemporary pieces, which included this Diamond Loop Tiara!
Prussian Meander Tiara | Fabergé Tiara | Prussian Sapphire Parure | Diamond Loop Tiara | Prussian Ruby Parure | Sapphire and Pearl Brooch
When Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schewerin married Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia in 1905, she received many spectacular Wedding Gifts, which included her Meander Tiara and Fabergé Tiara as well as this striking Diamond Loop Tiara, which was among the wedding gifts from Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire.
Composed in the high Belle Époque style featuring intricate diamond bows, looping garlands, and cascading diamonds designed to be worn as a Tiara and also to adorn the front of a formal court gown or bodice, the splendour of the Tiara seems to have overshadowed the other Wedding Gifts, as described in the press:
The ruler of the faithful must be in a pretty good financial position, so one involuntarily thinks when one sees this splendour, which certainly cost hundreds of thousands, and these other glories disappear, appear like cheap little things next to the gifts of the Sultan!
He, too, has chosen a tiara for the future fourth German Empress , but what are the fairytale-like, beautiful and large stones that form this!
The tiara competes in brilliance and splendor a huge diamond bow brooch and devante de corsage and as a third gift these two are in a real gold cassette made of driven gold, whose lid is all adorned with a series of hazelnut-sized diamonds.
Crown Princess Cecilie notably wore the Diamond Loop Tiara for a series of official portraits taken shortly after her wedding in 1905, paired with the Prussian Ruby Parure.
While her Meander Tiara and Fabergé Tiara were frequently worn by Crown Princess Cecilie during and after the fall of the German Empire, the Diamond Loop Tiara does not seem to have been publicly worn again, leading many to think it may have been redesigned, sold or lost in the tumultuous days at the end of the Second World War.
