Princess Margaret, the anti-conformist tiara and a scandalous photo
Protagonist of social life in the 60s, Princess Margaret is famous for her loves, a beautiful tiara (non-traditional, and here we explain why) and a photo considered scandalous ...
The TV series The Crown brought attention back to younger sister of the Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret. Her real life was lived in the shadow of the older one, having to endure limits and protocols imposed by the royal family. In any case, she went down in history for her restless life, an important social life in the 60s, many loves and many disappointments.
His restless and anti-conformist spirit was seen in the choice of the tiara on the wedding day with photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones, the first commoner (without noble titles) to marry the daughter of a king in 450 years of history, as well as the first English marriage to end on TV. On May 6, 1960 instead of showing off a traditional jewel, therefore of the royal treasure chest, Poltimore stands out on the head, the tiara she had bought in 1959 during an auction.
But where does the tiara come from? The jewel was forged in 1870 by London's most famous jeweler, Garrard, to adorn the head of Lady Florence Poltimore, wife of II Baron Poltimore. The diadem is made in gold, silver and diamonds, and it is a refined work of design because it can be decomposed into a necklace and eleven brooches: by observing it closely you can see the mounted and the gold screws that hold it together, while in the case are included elegant screwdrivers to be able to disassemble and re * Mounting.
In 2002, after the Princess died, the Poltimore tiara is sold at auction by Christie's for £ 926,400 (approximately 1.35 million euros) against an estimate between 150 and 200,000 pounds. The news creates no small dismay among the tiara-watcher: the sale of the real piece serves the heirs to meet inheritance taxes.
But this is not the most scandalous news concerning Margaret (played by Helena Bonham Carter in The Crown) and her tiara: the real disappointment is for a 1962 shot that portrays the younger sister of Elizabeth II, naked in the bathtub wearing only the diadem. In the upper left corner you can see the photographer, her husband Anthony Armstrong-Jones, from whom she divorced in 1978.
Read also The most beautiful tiaras of queens and princesses
