Seven Glamorous Pearl Tiaras Worn by Britain's Royal Family

The Windsors own some truly spectacular royal tiaras set with June's elegant birthstone, the luminous pearl

As June babies begin to celebrate their birthdays, we’ve got a closer look today at some beautiful tiaras from the British royal vaults set with gorgeous, glowing pearls. Which ones are your favorites? Let us know in the comment section at the end of today’s article!

Queen Elizabeth II attends a reception at the National Gallery in Canberra, Australia, on October 12, 1982 (Ron Bell/PA Images/Alamy)

There’s no place to start when talking about British royal pearl tiaras than with the queen of the category: the Vladimir Tiara. Made in the 1870s for Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, wife of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, the tiara was one of the stars of the Vladimir jewelry collection. When the Romanovs fled Russia in the wake of revolution, the tiara was left behind in the Vladimir Palace. Grand Duchess Vladimir’s son, Boris, recruited a British diplomat to help him retrieve the tiara and smuggle it out of the country–and it worked.

Grand Duchess Vladimir’s children later sold the tiara to Queen Mary of the United Kingdom. She had the bruised and battered diadem restored, and soon after, she had it adapted so she could wear it with her own family’s gorgeous emerald drops. Queen Elizabeth II inherited it from her grandmother in 1953, and she wore it faithfully (with pearls, emeralds, or no drops at all) for the next 70 years. I told the story of the Queen’s first public appearance in the grand tiara in an earlier article here at Hidden Gems. We’re still waiting to see Queen Camilla’s debut in the spectacular heirloom tiara.