While tickets to the V&A’s Cartier exhibition are currently harder to get hold of than one of Mr Wonka’s golden tickets, thankfully it isn’t the only place in town to indulge your love of all things sparkly. Earlier this month I was lucky enough to visit Kensington Palace, and on display there are several tiaras, two of which are probably in my top ten – yes, I have a top ten tiaras, no judgement please! There was also a third tiara that, though reminiscent in style of other well-known pieces, was completely new to me.
Princess Louise’s Diamond Necklace Tiara was a wedding present from the then Prince and Princess of Wales – Bertie and Alex – to their eldest daughter. Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar was their third child, and was born at Marlborough House on 20th February, 1867. Known as Lulu or Toots to the family, she was a shy, withdrawn girl, but as the daughter of a future king, she was considered a desirable bride.
She met her future husband at the wedding of her Aunt Beatrice; Alexander Duff was the 6th Earl of Fife and 18 years her senior. The wedding took place in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace on 27th July, 1889. Among the bridesmaids were Louise’s sisters Victoria and Maud, and Princess May of Teck – who would go on to marry Louise’s brother, George, and later become Queen Mary.
Among the plentiful wedding gifts that were displayed at Marlborough House was a beautiful diamond tiara that was inspired by the traditional Russian kokoshnik – a style popular at that time due to the close ties between the British and Russian royal families; Louise could count the Emperor and Empress of Russia as cousins, while among her aunts were both the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, the Duchess of Edinburgh.
“At the time, The London Illustrated News shared images of the gifts in their ‘Royal Wedding’ special edition, and described it as follows:
The Prince and Princess of Wales have presented their daughter with a beautiful tiara of fine brilliants, of elegant design of alternating and graduating rays, varying from nearly two inches long in the centre to half an inch at the extreme ends. By a simple arrangement, it also forms a beautiful and graceful necklace.
The tiara was made by jewellers Hancock & Co., and had graduated pavé-set rays of diamonds in white and yellow gold. It was also designed so that it could be worn as a tiara or converted into a necklace. You can see the transformation take place in the video below, from Historic Royal Palaces.
Hancocks & Co. were founded in 1849 and had received a royal warrant from Queen Victoria within 8 months of opening. They were notable for having designed and produced the Victoria Cross when it was instituted in 1856, and they are still responsible for making it exclusively to this day.
Louise often wore this piece as a necklace alongside the more dramatic Fife tiara. One notable instance was the wedding of her brother, Prince George, The Duke of York, to Princess May of Teck on 6th July, 1893.
She also wore it to another royal wedding – that of Princess Margaret of Connaught and Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, on 15th June, 1905.
After Louise’s death in 1931, her will, like those of other royals, was sealed, so the fate of this tiara remained a mystery. However, it was finally unsealed in 2024 and it was revealed to have been left to her youngest daughter, Maud. In her will, Louise referred to it as her ‘Spike Tiara’.
It was then inherited by Maud’s only child, her son, James Carnegie, who also became the 3rd Earl of Fife. And when he married Caroline Dewar in 1956, she walked down the aisle wearing the Diamond Necklace Tiara.
As mentioned, the tiara is currently on display in the jewel room at Kensington Palace. However, it was temporarily removed from display back in September 2020, when Charles Carnegie, Earl of Southesk (heir to the Dukedom of Fife) got married. His bride, Camille Ascoli, chose Princess Louise’s ‘Spike Tiara’ for her big day.
There’s something especially lovely about seeing a historic royal jewel like this still worn and enjoyed by its descendants. So many treasures from this era have been sold off or locked away behind glass—but this tiara continues to sparkle not, just in a display case, but at family weddings, just as it was originally intended.
Mistress of the Robes 