“Year after year we sell more tiaras than we used to,” says Jean-Marc Mansvelt,chief executive of Chaumet. “Surprisingly 2021 was a record year. People see them as an investment. In many countries,it is the ultimate symbol for weddings,with parents buying them for their daughters.”
“It is a symbol of the coronation of love.”
While Mansvelt’s lips remain tighter than a diamond setting on sales,Chaumet has made more than 2000 tiaras since 1780,including sparklers placed on the regal wigs and blow-dries of Empress Josephine of France,Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain,Edwina,Countess Mountbatten of Burma,and Roberte,Countess Bessborough,who loaned hers to US President John Kennedy’s mother Rose back in 1938.
It usually takes 18 months and 2000 hours of work for Chaumet’s jewellers to create tiaras to order,although Mansvelt can immediately assist customers with “tiaras for their fingers”,better known as rings. “The new flagship is focused on high jewellery,with appointment rooms for VIP clients.”
Auctions are another option for tiara traditionalists. A 1905 Belle Époque tiara from Italian jeweller Giuseppe Knight goes under the hammer in Paris at Bonhams auction house on February 16,with an estimate of $75,000 - $100,000.
Fiona Frith,jewellery specialist at Bonhams in Sydney,says Europe remains the biggest market for tiara purchases. Having unearthed tiaras in Australia belonging to outposts of aristocratic families,including one from relatives of the Viscount of Cowdray that sold for £110,062 ($192,047) in 2019,Frith forwards them to Bonham’s London headquarters.