Queen Sirikit’s Dazzling Diamond Jubilee Tiara

Today in Thailand, the royal family is marking the birthday of the King’s mother, Queen Sirikit. In her honor, we’ve got a look back today at a sparkling appearance of one of her most enduring royal tiaras, from her late husband’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations back in 2006.

In June 2006, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand celebrated the 6oth anniversary of his accession to the throne. Born in Massachusetts in 1927 while his father studied at Harvard Medical School, Bhumibol Adulyadej unexpectedly inherited the throne after the mysterious death of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, in 1946.

The teenage King returned to Switzerland, where he had spent much of his childhood, after his accession so that he could continue his education. During a visit to Paris, he met Sirikit Kitiyakara, daughter of the Thai ambassador to France. They fell in love and were married in April 1950, just a few days before his coronation, and had four children together, including the present King of Thailand.

In June 2006, a series of grand celebrations marked King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Diamond Jubilee, including a tiara-filled gala attended by royals from around the world. For the event, the King was in dress uniform, while Queen Sirikit wore a gorgeous dark dress with a subtle pattern echoed by beaded embroidery on the bodice and sleeves. Both wore numerous decorations, including the sash and star of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri.

Appropriately for a Diamond Jubilee party, Queen Sirikit was absolutely dripping in jewelry set with diamonds for the gala: tiara, earrings, necklace, bracelets, and rings.

The tiara, which can be taken off its frame and worn as a necklace, has been in Sirikit’s jewelry box since the 1960s. It was reportedly made by Van Cleef & Arpels, a firm that made numerous pieces of jewelry for her over the years. Sirikit, thanks to her years spent in Paris, was a great lover of French couture, wearing beautiful clothing and jewelry made by some of the great designers of the era. (She especially loved Balmain, wearing an entire wardrobe of their pieces for a tour of Europe in 1960.)

In the photograph above, Sirikit wears the diamond tiara for a visit to the opera in Vienna in the autumn of 1964. If you look closely at her right wrist, you’ll also spot the diamond bangle bracelets that she wore for the Diamond Jubilee four decades later. I believe she’s also wearing the same diamond earrings for both events.

A few weeks earlier, Sirikit had also worn the tiara for a ball held on the eve of the wedding of King Constantine II of the Hellenes and Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark. Here, she walks down the grand staircase of the Royal Palace in Athens on the arm of the bride-to-be’s father, King Frederik IX of Denmark. On his other arm is his wife, Queen Ingrid, wearing the famous Danish Rubies.

You’ll also spot other faces behind them, including King Olav V of Norway (escorting Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who wears the Stuart Tiara), King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Hussein of Jordan, King Simeon of Bulgaria, and Queen Marie José of Italy (wearing Queen Margherita’s Musy Tiara).

Here’s one more look at Queen Sirikit wearing her timeless diamonds. The jewels looked just as fresh at the Diamond Jubilee as they had at the royal wedding in Athens forty-two years earlier.