nuranar | 30 January 2017

Mostly thanks to madamekat and starlightmasque, I've discovered the world of Real Tiaras. I never realized how many genuine diamond-and-jewel genuine tiaras are out there, and in many cases, still being worn. I'm also super fascinated that there are also actual reproductions of them being made. Witness the Cameo Tiara, for example.

There are others out there, too, just dumped on ebay and mixed in with all the generic pageant and quinceanera tiaras. A tiny handful of them identify a previous wearer (such as Princess Diana, Fergie, and Queen Sofia of Spain), but most of them have the usual keywords.

So I started a Pinterest board identifying actual reproductions. It is utterly fascinating how close some of them are to the originals, considering they cannot hope to match the delicacy and detail and yet keep them affordable. My pins are of the reproduction, captioned with the title of the tiara and a link to information about the original tiara.

Most recently I found the Teck Crescent Tiara, worn most recently by the Queen Mother.

This is the real one, from an excellent blog post on the Royal Order of Splendor. (Seriously, the best blog ever.)

Isn't that pretty and unusual? It's not perfect, by any means, but it's a quite good copy for the price.

I also have another Pinterest board of tiaras that look like they should be reproductions, but I haven't identified the original. There really are so many tiaras out there in the world, and there's no one place to find all of them. I would definitely appreciate any leads on those.

Otherwise, have fun! There are often more versions of the same tiara out there (I found multiples of the Cambridge Pearl Drop worn by Diana and now Catherine, as well as the Halo Scroll that Catherine wore in the wedding), and multiple sellers with probably the same version. It's not an exhaustive list. Just pre-loading some research and sourcing for when I want to expand my collection. :D

padawansguide, I did get your comment! I need to go back and pull my sources out, but I haven't forgotten. :)