Today marks the Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Mary, who was born on this day in 1867! The Teck Princess who lived through the reigns of six monarchs and was the Queen Consort for twenty-five years, as well as a Queen Mother to two Kings and the Queen Grandmother to Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary assembled much of the British Royal Family’s spectacular Jewellery Collection, which includes the Teck Turquoise Tiara!
Queen Mary’s Crown | Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara | Vladimir Tiara | Delhi Durbar Tiara | Cambridge Emerald Parure | Lover’s Knot Tiara | Fringe Tiara | Teck Turquoise Tiara | Gloucester Honeysuckle Tiara | Cambridge Sapphire Parure | Iveagh Tiara | Amethyst Tiara | Ladies of England Tiara | Surrey Fringe Tiara | The Jewels of Queen Mary
When Princess May of Teck married the Duke of York, the future King George V, in 1893, she received a series of spectacular gifts of jewellery from family, friends and representatives of various parts of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, among which was this striking Tiara, circa 1850, composed of diamonds and turquoise stones set in a central sunburst motif surrounded by rococo scrolls, which, along with a necklace and several brooches.
The Tiara and Parure were a wedding gift to the future Queen Mary from her parents, the Duke and Princess Mary Adelaide, the Duchess of Teck, though she was only photographed wearing it once soon after her marriage, though in 1912, she had the central portion of the Tiara altered by E. Wolff & Co.
When Queen Mary’s third son, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, married Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott in 1935, the bride received several spectacular wedding gifts, including the Gloucester Honeysuckle Tiara and Queen Mary’s Teck Turquoise Tiara and Parure, which went on display with the other wedding gifts.
As her secondary Tiara after the Gloucester Honeysuckle Tiara, the Duchess of Gloucester wore the Teck Turquoise Tiara and Parure for a plethora of occasions including the Opening of Odeon in Leicester Square in 1937, the Coronation Gala in 1937, a Gala Performance at Covent Garden in 1939, the Givenchy Fashion Show at The Dorchester in 1955. Princess Alice also inherited other Turquoise Jewels from Queen Mary, including at least two Turquoise and Diamond Necklaces.
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester continued to wear the Teck Turquoise Tiara at a variety of Gala occasions into the later years of her life, with notable appearances during the French State Visit in 1960, at a Gala at Covent Garden in 1960, the State Opening of Parliament in 1967, a Royal Film Premiere at Dominion Theatre in 1969, and during the Dutch State Visit in 1972.
By the late 1970s, Princess Alice passed on the Teck Turquoise Tiara and Parure to her daughter-in-law, the current Duchess of Gloucester, who began wearing it around the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Gala at Covent Garden in 1977, with other notable appearances during the American State Visit to Britain in 1982, Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik’s 25th Wedding Anniversary in 1992, and various Return Galas and State Openings of Parliament though the 1980s and 1990s.
More recently, the Teck Turquoise Tiara and Parure is usually seen when the Duke and Duchess represented the late Queen at the City of London’s Guildhall Banquets during State Visits, with a handful of prominent appearances in recent years. Lets hope we continue to see this spectacular Heirloom for years to come!
Queen Mary’s Crown | Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara | Vladimir Tiara | Delhi Durbar Tiara | Cambridge Emerald Parure | Lover’s Knot Tiara | Fringe Tiara | Teck Turquoise Tiara | Gloucester Honeysuckle Tiara | Cambridge Sapphire Parure | Iveagh Tiara | Amethyst Tiara | Ladies of England Tiara | Surrey Fringe Tiara | The Jewels of Queen Mary
