Crowning Achievements: The World's Most Beautiful Tiaras
Delhi Durbar Tiara (Britain)
Maharani Bakhtawar Kaur, wife of the maharaja of the Indian state of Patiala, presented Queen Mary with this magnificent tiara in 1911 to celebrate her first visit to India and to mark the Delhi Durbar — a mass gathering in Delhi that commemorated the coronation of King George V. The circle of brilliantly cut diamonds mounted in gold and set in platinum originally contained five emeralds, but Queen Mary removed them to make another tiara, which Queen Elizabeth now wears. The late Queen Mother wore the Delhi Durbar on a state visit to South Africa in 1947, but the tiara stayed out of public view for the next 58 years. Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall, above, borrowed the tiara for her first royal banquet at Buckingham Palace in October 2005, six months after she married Prince Charles.