A festoon of diamonds that just made a star appearance at a glittering royal event

The King and Queen were joined by several other senior royals for the French State Banquet at Windsor Castle. Both the Princess Royal and the Duchess of Gloucester were on hand to help support the King, and both women wore long time favourite tiaras. 

The Princess Royal chose the Diamond Festoon Tiara, a long-standing piece in her personal collection. Historians believe that the delicate diamond diadem dates back to the early twentieth century but this has not been confirmed. 

In 1973, the World Wide Shipping Group gifted the tiara to Princess Anne ahead of her wedding. She wore the piece for pre-wedding portraits with her fiance, Mark Phillips.

The Diamond Festoon Tiara is a lighter piece, making it one of Anne’s favourite tiaras, especially in her younger years. 

The Duchess of Gloucester wore the Teck Turquoise Tiara for the State Banquet given by the Royal Family for the President of France. 

The diamond and turquoise tiara was originally created sometime in the mid-nineteenth century; it features a central sunburst element of diamonds and smaller turquoise stones bursting out of the round main turquoise gem and diamond rococo scrolls punctuated by oval-shaped turquoise stones. 

In 1893, the then-Princess Mary of Teck received the tiara, along with multiple brooches and a necklace, from her parents as a wedding gift. In the mid-1910s, Mary then had jeweller E. Wolff & Co. change the tiara slightly to the design we now see. 

Queen Mary gave the tiara to her daughter-in-law, the new Duchess of Gloucester, as a wedding gift in 1935. In the late 1970s, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, then lent the tiara to her new daughter-in-law, Birgitte. 

Now the Duchess of Gloucester, Birgitte, wears the unique turquoise tiara frequently.