Dufferin and Ava Shamrock Tiara

Today marks the 5th Anniversary of the Death of Lindy Guinness, the 5th and last Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, who passed away on this day in 2020! The accomplished artist who married the illustrious Irish Aristocrat and became a noted conservationist and the chatelaine of the Clandeboye Estate, she wore the magnificent Diamond Shamrock Tiara now on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum!

The striking Diamond Coronet composed of large diamond shamrocks over a diamond base with pear-shaped pearls over diamond floral clusters, the Tiara was commissioned in the 1860s around the time of the marriage of the 5th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye, later the 1st Marquess, to Hariot Georgina Rowan-Hamilton in 1862.

The the first Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava wore the striking Diamond Shamrock Tiara on numerous occasions as the Viceregal-Consort of Canada and the Vicereine of India, as well as when the Marquess was appointed Ambassador to the Russian Court, the Ottoman Empire, and France.

By the 1930s, the Marchioness of Dufferin had passed along the Diamond Shamrock Tiara to her granddaughter-in-law, Maureen Guinness, the 4th Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava who often wore the Tiara for State Openings of Parliament as well as the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937.

After being widowed in 1945, and remarrying twice, the 4th Marchioness, who became the first woman to sit on the board of the Guinness Brewery in 1949, continued to wear the Diamond Shamrock Tiara at Society Balls and Galas through the following decades at the centre of British Society, as her granddaughter recalled:

At my mother’s coming-out ball, attended by Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, my grandmother ‘overserved’ herself champagne and slipped on the dancefloor, cracking the priceless shamrock-shaped family tiara. She never drank again.

When the 5th and last Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and his fourth cousin, Lindy Guinness, at Westminster Abbey in 1964, the new Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava wore the Diamond Shamrock Tiara:

The bride wore a dress of heavy white gabardine designed by John Cavanagh. It had a bodice molded to a slightly raised waistline, a narrow roll collar and a princess line skirt flowing to a 15-foot court train held at the shoulders with small tailored bows. The bride’s veil of tulle was attached to the Dufferin and Ava shamrock tiara.

The Dowager Marchioness continued to wear the Diamond Shamrock Tiara quite frequently until her passing in 1998, most notably for her annual ‘tiara party’.

Even in her nineties she was still throwing lively annual dinner parties for the Queen Mother at her home in Knightsbridge, at which the likes of Sir Alec Guinness and Barry Humphries could be found. Indeed, in later life the marchioness – the model for Osbert Lanchester’s Maudie Littlehampton – appeared also to have inspired Dame Edna.

The 5th Marquess, who was homosexual, and Marchioness threw popular parties at their homes in London and Northern Ireland, and on his death, in 1988, the title became extinct. The last Lady Dufferin inherited the Family Seat, Clandeboye in Northern Ireland, and became an artist, conservationist and businesswoman. The late Marchioness loaned the Diamond Shamrock Tiara to the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where it remains on display today!

Dufferin and Ava Shamrock Tiara

Devonshire Diamond Palmette Tiara

Devonshire Diamond Tiara

Devonshire Diamond Rivière

Devonshire Parure

Ruby Clasp

Craven Brooch

Insect Brooches

Devonshire Tiara

Devonshire Diamond Rivière

Ruby Clasp

Wellington Tiara

Diamond Floral Tiara

Diamond Earrings

Diamond Tassel Earrings

Von Preussen Tiara

Strawberry Leaf Coronet