Art Deco tiara / necklace, c.1935 (diamonds, paste & platinum)

Of openwork design, the central detachable geometric panel set with old-cut diamonds and nine paste baguettes to the graduated diamond scroll and collet sides, tiara fittings deficient, fittings to wear tiara as a necklace and central panel as a brooch, circa 1935, 27.2 cm. inner circumference By family tradition, this late Art Deco tiara was bought by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Walter Bromley-Davenport for his wife Lenette in the early 1940s from the Wakely's: the family of the English clothes designer, Amanda Wakely. The form strongly recalls that of the famous Westminster tiara of Loelia Ponsonby, designed in the 'Oriental Style' to sit atop the head directly parallel to the face. Influenced by eastern motifs, but also by western fashions, this new style catered well to the shorter hairstyles of the 1920s and 1930s, to which the older, heavier designs were not so well suited.