The Derby Tiara, attributed to Skinner & Co., circa 1890

Designed as a series of stylised buds issued from an openwork band, from which issues a sequence of eleven angular palmettes within diamond borders between which sit graduated lotus flowers, set throughout with cushion-shaped, rose- and circular-cut diamonds in gold and silver, in a fitted Carrington & Co. case, inner length approximately 471mm.

Exhibited

Boston, Crowning Glories: Two Centuries of Tiaras, Museum of Fine Arts, 1 March - 25 June 2000

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, D. Scarisbrick, Tiara, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2000, pp. 88-89, illustrated

Catalogue Note

The design for this tiara is highly similar to the Devonshire Palmette Tiara, created in 1893 for Louise, Duchess of Devonshire, the year after her marriage to the 8th Duke of Devonshire. Unlike the Devonshire Palmette, which features 13 palmette motifs, the present tiara is smaller and bears 11 palmette motifs.