Yep. You read that correctly. Wooden tiara. Beechwood to be exact. Your Blog Hostess found it in the back pages of Geoffrey Munn’s Tiaras: Past and Present (published 2002) and just thought it was the cutest thing. Not even cute…cool. Cool like the Fonz!
Yesterday, with Munn’s look-book held open, we leaned over to Mr. Blog Hostess and said, “Check out this bad-ass tiara!” Showing all the interest husbands show toward overpriced jewelry, he balked in surprise at the sight of it. Clearly not what he was anticipating. Then Señor Anfitrión de Blog agreed it was awesome. How often does that happen?
This tiara is so unique we had to make a new sub-category for it! [Wood!] This beechwood halo is said to represent “autumn leaves” and was designed by Tim Gosling for David Linley Furniture. The Linley Wooden Tiara was displayed in the 2002 “Tiaras” exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. But what would posses a furniture maker to take on a tiara?
Serena, Viscountess Linley, looking adorable in the most unusual tiara we’ve seen to date. (Photo credit: Earl of Snowdown.)
Your Blog Hostess isn’t known for her dominance in the field of logic but it would make perfect sense for the leaves in this tiara to be representations of beech leaves, n’est-ce pas? Yet a cursory image search shows that the top leaves (above left) are birch leaves, not beech. It would appear that the leaves that create the tiara’s base are of the willow species.
Come on, amateur and possibly professional botanists! Prove us wrong! What foliage are dealing with here?
history buff, jewelry whore, chatterbox, mets fan
tiaras and trianon 
How novel, looks like it would be right at home in Bottecelli’s Primavera. I think I like it more than the diamond ones.
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It certainly has that “let’s-go-frolic-in-a-forest-glen” style to it, don’t you think?
I wonder how much one of those would run you? [Or me, for that matter.]
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..I work in a wood shop. ..Just how many brownies and pies would I have to make to get the master carvers to make me a wooden tiara?
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This is certainly the first time I see a wooden tiara, and I have seen a lot of jewellery!
A beautiful find. And I’ll second the birch leaves theory, however what kind of leaves is in the first row… I have never seen willow leaves that weren’t pointy, but then there are so many different willow species. I think it’s adequate to look into tree symbolism of that era, and to see what the artist could have chosen to match the needs of an august customer!
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it was made in 2002 so the language of the foliage wasn’t really au currant, shall we say. But you’ve given me a fabulous idea!
Thanks for commenting!
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