The Countess of Airlie’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara to Be Sold in London

When tiaras are sparkling for royal gala events, there are often women on the periphery of the royal fold wearing equally splendid tiaras and jewels. These often belong to ladies-in-waiting, and later this month, a tiara worn by one of them will be sold to a new buyer.

The diamond and pearl tiara, most recently worn by the late Countess of Airlie, has been in the Ogilvy family for several generations. The jewel was made by Garrard at the end of the nineteenth century. The tiara’s balanced design incorporates daisy, clover, and ivy leaf designs. The largest pearls—the one set in the central daisy and the one immediately above it—are both natural saltwater pearls.

The tiara’s first recorded wearer was Lady Mabell Gore, who became the Countess of Airlie when she married the 11th Earl of Airlie in 1886. Lyon & Turnbull, the auction house handling the tiara’s forthcoming sale, speculates that it may have been one of Mabell’s wedding gifts.

Mabell was widowed early when her husband died in 1900 while fighting in the Second Boer War. But, even in her widowhood, she had plenty of opportunities to wear the jewel. Mabell was appointed as one of the Ladies in the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales, later Queen Mary, in 1901, and she continued to serve in the role in various capacities until Mary’s death in 1953.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzb40-ZKNW0A few months earlier, a new member had joined the Ogilvy family, and soon she too would need a tiara. Virginia Fortune Ryan was the daughter of a wealthy American banking family. Her father, John Barry Ryan, Jr., was a close friend of both Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. Virginia, who was known as “Ginny” by family and friends, was born in Mayfair. Her parents’ connections to the upper echelon of British society brought her into the circle of Mabell’s grandson, Lord Ogilvy, the heir to the family earldom.

Nineteen-year-old Virginia married David Ogilvy at St. Margaret’s Church in Westminster on October 23, 1952. The wedding, one of the big society events of the season, was attended by the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Earl of Athlone and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. The groom’s supporter was his younger brother, the Hon. Angus Ogilvy, who a decade later would marry Princess Alexandra of Kent.

After the couple’s wedding, Lord Ogilvy began work as a banker in London, and the new Lady Ogilvy gave birth to six children. After his father’s passing in 1968, the couple became the Earl and Countess of Airlie. Five years later, in 1973, Virginia was called on to take on a new role, as one of the ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II. She was in attendance with the monarch at a whole range of events, from everyday engagements and foreign trips to glittering gala occasions. Her husband too eventually left his job to join the Royal Household, serving as Lord Chamberlain from 1984 until 1997.

Embed from Getty Images

The Airlie Tiara, handed down after Mabell’s death to subsequent generations of the family, became an important part of Virginia’s uniform for sparkling moments like state banquets and State Openings of Parliament. Above, Virginia wears the tiara for a banquet at the Guildhall during the Sultan of Brunei’s state visit to London in the autumn of 1992. Lord Airlie is sitting to her right, wearing the yellow sash of the Order of the Crown of Brunei.

And here, she wears the tiara as she travels back to Buckingham Palace after the State Opening of Parliament in 2008. Lady Airlie remained a dedicated member of the Queen’s household until the late monarch’s passing in September 2022, when Virginia herself was nearly 90 years old.

The 13th Earl of Airlie passed away in London in 2023 at the age of 97. A little over a year later, his widow followed him. Virginia died on August 16, 2024, aged 91, at the family’s castle in Scotland. Now, a little over a year after her death, Virginia’s descendants have decided to part with the family tiara. The auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull will offer the tiara as part of a collection of lots from the estate of Virginia Fortune Ryan Ogilvy, Dowager Countess of Airlie, in London in two weeks.

The tiara—arranged here by the auction house as the centerpiece of a still life, surrounded by figs—is estimated to sell for between £50,000-£70,000, or about $67,000-$94,000 USD (at the exchange rate at the time of writing). Will the much-discussed “royal bump” apply to a royal-adjacent tiara like this one, perhaps helping it to bring in a much larger sum? We’ll all find out when the tiara is sold, along with several more pieces of the late countess’s jewelry, in London on October 22.