Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981 on July 29 in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. They welcomed their first child, Prince William, on June 21, 1982. To commemorate the birth of Prince William, Prince Charles presented Princess Diana with the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara.
This is a different tiara to the Lover’s Knot Tiara which has been worn a few times by Kate Middleton.
The tiara Kate wears was created for Queen Mary in 1913 by the House of Garrand from pearls and diamonds already owned by her family.
Queen Mary modelled it after her grandmother Princess Augusta of Hesse’s headpiece, the original Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara.
This sparkler was worn many times by Princess Diana and is currently thought to be held in an unknown private collection.
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Alexandra Michell, gemmologist and jewellery expert from Prestige Pawnbrokers of Channel 4’s Posh Pawn, spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk about Diana’s tiara.
She said: “One of my favourite quotes is from Keats ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’.
“This is certainly true of this magnificent tiara.
“I am not surprised the tiara was prone to give headaches!
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“It is large and made from platinum, which is a dense metal and would be at least 95 percent pure, giving a heavy mount to start with.
“The pearls are large and together with the array of varying sizes of diamonds, would add to a hefty weight.
“The tiara has 19 arches and has a single drop oriental pearl suspended from a lover’s knot in each one graduating slightly in size around the piece.
“These drops are flexible and shows a shimmering movement as the head is turned.
“The fact that it’s so heavy it hurt Princess Diana’s head indicates that this is a valuable tiara, embellished with the finest quality diamonds and pearls.”
Philip Dawson, the Managing Director at Lily Arkwright jewellers spoke about why this tiara has not been seen publicly since Princess Diana’s death.
He exclusively told Express.co.uk: “Jewellery offers a huge amount of sentimental value and any use of such a symbolic piece would be viewed with great scepticism by the British public.
“This is particularly evident given Princess Diana’s humble charity work, to wear such a symbolic and jewellery statement piece in the years after Princess Diana’s death would likely be viewed as poor taste.”
