Many thanks to have taken time to share that !
J-F
When I initially found an image of Queen Mary wearing the Delhi Durbar tiara published in the Illustrated London News 20 May 1911 it proved that Queen Mary wore the tiara before the Delhi Durbar and that it could be worn with the Lesser Stars of Africa before the changes made by Garrard in 1912. It also proved that the Royal Collection date of 1912 for the photos from this portrait sitting was incorrect.
The Wellcome collection has a copy of one of the photos from this sitting which has a much higher resolution.
The Wellcome image allows us to see clearly how the Lesser Stars of Africa were mounted in the tiara in 1911.
Because of a mistake in Hugh Roberts and the dating of a photo from this sitting by Thomson by the Royal Collection, it had been assumed that it was only in 1912 that the tiara was adapted to take the Lesser Stars of Africa. This is not so. From the outset the tiara could be fitted with the Lesser Stars - or as some refer to the diamonds, Cullinan III and IV.
In The Queen's Diamonds page 178 foot note 6 shows that in 1912 Garrard made 2 adjustments to the Delhi Durbar tiara.
Robert's foot note
The first alteration in March 1912 allowed the Lesser Stars of Africa to be mounted within the tiara in a different setting, allowing Cullinan III to fit within the tiara instead of surmounting it and for Cullinan IV to hang on the diagonal instead of appearing as a square.
The definition of the 1930 photo which J-F found allows us to see more clearly how the new setting for the Cullinans was done.
The major change involved how Cullinan III was mounted. Part of the original tiara in the centre had to be made detachable and a modified element created. What I am saying is that Cullinan III did not simply hang over the existing setting.
However the jewellers did this new setting, it was detachable, as later the tiara is seen with the original central setting.
The earliest photos showing Queen Mary with the Lesser Stars of Africa worn within the tiara are I think from the Belgian State visit in 1922 (see Thomas' photo)
Although we don't have photos of the changes made in 1912 until a later date, I think that from 1912 the Lesser Stars of Africa were always worn in this manner. One of the things which has probably confused jewellery lovers is the paucity of photos from this period. The newspapers indicate that Queen Mary wore the tiara with the Lesser Stars of Africa frequently, but we have no photos of HM at the numerous Courts; we have only the formal portrait sittings which were done by various photographers. Most of these where Queen Mary is shown wearing the Delhi Durbar tiara show the tiara with emeralds. Secondly, during the war years formal portraits of HM were not released.
In 2008 on RJWMB Boffer did a very detailed analysis of the changes to the tiara and the various configurations; however, based on information from Roberts and the Royal Collection site, he thought that the version in the photo published in the Illustrated London News in 1911 was the 3rd version of the tiara made after the 1912 Garrard changes.
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