After weeks of speculation, it can now be revealed that Kate Middleton chose the best tiara to wear for the Chinese president's state visit: The Lotus Flower tiara formerly owned by the Queen Mother, the Daily Mail reports.
In the weeks leading up to the historic state visit, the public was entranced with guesses on which tiara the Duchess of Cambridge would possibly wear during her first state banquet appearance. A litany of tiaras were all lined up as possibilities, but eventually only one tiara became the obvious choice.
The Lotus Flower tiara is otherwise known as the Papyrus tiara and was originally a necklace given to the then Duchess of York at her wedding back in 1923 to George V's younger son, who would eventually be George VI, King of England and father of Queen Elizabeth.
The Queen Mother later decided that she did not want the jewels around her neck but atop her head, and promptly commissioned the royal jeweler Garrard to have it redone as a delicate tiara.
The Egyptian-styled headpiece sports fan-shaped designs under floating diamond arches with the main jewels being two smaller pearls at the base and the main pearl above the main fan detail in the tiara.
The Queen Mother famously wore the jeweled gift from her husband, bandeau style during the swinging 20s and the 30s. Later, it disappeared from public view, only re-emerging to grace the dark locks of her daughter, the late Princess Margaret. The Queen's younger sister, who passed away in 2002, took a particular liking to this tiara and wore it often to official functions in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Later the crown was seen on the head of Princess Margaret's daughter-in-law, Serena Stanhope, on the day of her wedding to Princess Margaret's son, the Viscount Linley.
The tiara then again disappeared from public view until it made a sudden come back on Kate's head during the Queen's annual diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace in 2013. The state banquet held in honor of President Xi Jinping marks the second time Kate has sported the Papyrus tiara in her career as a member of the Firm.
The UK's Express also notes that the Lotus Flower tiara is by no means the only tiara that has graced the head of many royal ladies in the past. Other remarkable tiaras that have a rich history in the British royal family are the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara, the Burmese Ruby Tiara, the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, the Kokoshnik Tiara, the Cartier Halo Scroll Tiara and the Delhi Durbar Tiara.
