The Teck Crescent Tiara is one of the royal family\u2019s lesser-known diamond headpieces.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Reportedly made for Princess Mary Adelaide in the 1850s, it became a favorite of Elizabeth the Queen Mother in the 1930s.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
While it was put on display in 2002, the tiara hasn\u2019t been worn by a royal in decades.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Every royal tiara has a history, but certain backstories are better-known than others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Cambridge Lover\u2019s Knot Tiara<\/a>, a favorite of Princess Diana\u2019s<\/a> and Kate Middleton\u2019s, was commissioned for Queen Mary (also known as Mary of Teck) in the early 20th century; it\u2019s believed to be a recreation of a coronet once owned by her grandmother, Princess Augusta. Queen Elizabeth\u2019s beloved Vladimir Tiara<\/a>, meanwhile, originated in Russia at the end of the Romanov dynasty. An antiques dealer allegedly smuggled it into England during the Russian Revolution, at which point Elizabeth\u2019s grandmother, Mary, purchased it.<\/p>\n Another tiara with a connection to Mary? The Teck Crescent Tiara, a rarely seen diadem with over 100 years of royal history behind it. The last person to wear the diadem in public was the Queen Mother (aka Queen Elizabeth\u2019s mom, also named Elizabeth). She wore it several times in 1939\u2014but a royal hasn\u2019t donned it since. Save for a 2002 museum exhibition, it\u2019s been locked in the Windsor family\u2019s proverbial jewelry box for decades.<\/p>\n Ahead, learn more about the origins of the Teck Crescent Tiara and where it is today.<\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth\u2019s great-grandmother had the Teck Crescent Tiara made in the 19th century. Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, circa 1866. She wears the rose and crescent tiara.Credit: Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/p>\n According to Hugh Roberts\u2019s 2012 book The Queen\u2019s Diamonds<\/a>, an authorized history of the British royal family\u2019s most fabulous jewels, the Teck Crescent Tiara likely came to be in the 1850s.\u00a0<\/p>\n Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, died in 1857, leaving behind a variety of beautiful baubles. A few of her diamond roses and a diamond bandeau went to her niece, Princess Mary Adelaide. Roberts suggests (via The Court Jeweller<\/a>) that these pieces became the rose and crescent tiara Mary Adelaide wore in numerous portraits before her death in 1897.<\/p>\n The Queen Mother wore it several times in the late 1930s. Elizabeth the Queen Mother attends a performance by the \u2018Com\u00e9die-Fran\u00e7aise\u2019 company in March 1939.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n Elizabeth the Queen Mother favored the Teck Crescent Tiara, a gift from her mother-in-law, Queen Mary of Teck<\/a> (the daughter of Mary Adelaide). In Geoffrey C. Munn\u2019s 2001 book<\/a>, Tiaras: A History of Splendour, he writes, \u201cIn 1936 Queen Mary had written that she felt very sad at parting with the jewelry she had taken care of since 1910. Now it was for the use of the new Queen [Elizabeth]\u2026[including] the tiara of crescent-shaped ornaments interspersed with stylized roses\u201d which her mother Mary Adelaide had worn to Mary\u2019s 1893 wedding.<\/p>\n Photos published by The Court Jeweller show Queen Elizabeth\u2019s mother wearing the tiara on three separate occasions in 1939. The first was a comedy performance at the Savoy Hotel in London in March; she also accessorized with the diadem at a Parliamentary Dinner in Ottawa that May, and chose it again for a July gala.<\/p>\n World War II dimmed public enthusiasm for ostentatious displays of wealth, which may have contributed to the tiara\u2019s disappearance<\/a> from the spotlight after that year.<\/p>\n It was put on display in 2002 and photographed in 2012.<\/p>\n Although it hasn\u2019t completed any royal ensembles since the 1930s, the Teck Crescent Tiara was put on display in 2002 at London\u2019s Victoria and Albert Museum. In total, 180 tiaras featured<\/a> in the exhibition. Ten years later, the tiara<\/a> again took a trip out of storage to be photographed for Roberts\u2019s 2012 book, which was published on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth\u2019s diamond jubilee.<\/p>\n Queen Camilla could become the next royal to wear the tiara. Queen Camilla wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara in October 2023.Credit: Max Mumby\/Indigo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth inherited the Teck Crescent Tiara upon her mother\u2019s death in 2002, but never publicly wore it<\/a> before her passing in 2022. Royal watchers who are fans of the rarely seen, but intricately crafted diadem have hoped to see Queen Camilla<\/a> choose it for a state banquet or diplomatic reception. So far, that hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n There\u2019s still hope, however, as Camilla has worn one other tiara<\/a> that once belonged to Mary of Teck\u2014The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara. She debuted the glitzy topper in 2023, during a reception in honor of her and King Charles\u2019s coronation, per People<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Princess](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/f5acafe7-6c4c-417d-a486-7983da552894.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/afdc80fd-9459-4ab3-8cc2-aa6a6a55fadb.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ee6d8e38-83e8-4ac6-b761-76f3b093f495.jpg\"\/)
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