See, I told you that we’d talk about Duchess Kate and the Halo Scroll today! All inspired by a Wedding Tiara Montage…you know how these things go. Put the horse before the cart.

wedding tiaras: Duchess of Cambridge, the Halo Scroll Tiara; Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, the Diamond Daisy Tiara; doña Letizia, la Princesa de Asturias, the Prussian Diamond Tiara;

Finally the Cartier Halo Scroll Tiara, which had become yet another one of those MIA Tiaras like the Delhi Durbar Tiara that hadn’t been seen since the 1940s on the head of the Queen Mum only to turn up in 2005 on the noggin of the new Duchess of Cornwall at her first state banquet.

No one had seen the (Cartier) Scroll Tiara since Princess Anne‘s youth in 1970  until last year April at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Wedding. No one had ever referred to it as the “Halo Tiara” either until the press began to leak that Kate Middleton would wear the “Halo Tiara” for her wedding to Prince William. Since then it has been referred to as the Halo Scroll Tiara, the Cartier Scroll Tiara and expressions even more litigious…just kidding, kind of…

The tiara was made in 1936 by Cartier (duh). It was purchased by the Duke of York for his Duchess only three weeks before he became George VI and she Queen Elizabeth. The Queen gave it to her daughter Princess Lilabet in 1944, for her 18th birthday. Neither Elizabeth nor the current Queen Elizabeth seemed to enjoy wearing it much and they loaned it out frequently.

originally a gift to the Queen Mum, which she was still Duchess of York, the Halo Scroll Tiara, has been loaned around the family to princess margaret, and in closest memory, princess anne until she had a big enough collection of her own.

In fact, for awhile it seemed to be the “training-tiara” or “automatic loaner” in the Windosor Collection. Princess Anne being an excellent example. She wore the Scroll Tiara until she had a decent collection of her own and had no need of it. I guess it’s fitting Kate cut her teeth on the “starter tiara” for her wedding…

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