Princess Margaret's Jewelry: Bohemian Royal Style

The Royal Rebel's Jewelry

Princess Margaret (1930–2002) — younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother — was the most glamorous and unconventional member of the British royal family of her generation. Her jewelry choices reflected her personality: bold, theatrical, and unapologetically individual, combining inherited royal pieces with contemporary designs and wearing them with a confidence and flair that made her one of the most photographed women of the mid-20th century.

Margaret's jewelry story is inseparable from her personal story — a princess who was denied permission to marry the man she loved (Group Captain Peter Townsend, a divorced man), who subsequently made an unhappy marriage to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon), and who navigated the constraints of royal life with a mixture of grace, rebellion, and style that made her a cultural icon of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

The Poltimore Tiara: A Princess's Crown

Princess Margaret's most famous piece of jewelry was the Poltimore Tiara — a diamond tiara that she purchased privately (rather than inheriting from the royal collection) and wore at her own wedding in 1960. The tiara, made by Garrard in the 1870s for Lady Poltimore, features a series of graduated diamond scrolls that can be worn as a tiara or disassembled into smaller pieces.

Margaret wore the Poltimore Tiara at her wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones in a distinctive way — perched high on her elaborately styled hair, creating a dramatic visual effect that was widely photographed and admired. The image of Margaret in the Poltimore Tiara became one of the defining images of early 1960s royal style, combining traditional royal jewelry with the emerging aesthetic of the Swinging Sixties.

After Margaret's death in 2002, the Poltimore Tiara was sold at Christie's for £926,400 — far exceeding its pre-sale estimate — demonstrating the extraordinary premium that royal provenance adds to jewelry at auction.

Inherited Pieces: Royal Heritage

Beyond her privately purchased pieces, Margaret inherited significant jewelry from her mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and from other members of the royal family. These inherited pieces — which included diamond brooches, pearl necklaces, and other pieces with royal provenance — provided the foundation of her collection and connected her to the broader tradition of British royal jewelry.

Margaret wore these inherited pieces with the same confidence and individuality that characterized her privately purchased jewelry, mixing historic royal pieces with contemporary designs in combinations that reflected her eclectic taste and her refusal to be constrained by convention.

Cartier and Contemporary Jewelry

Princess Margaret was a devoted patron of Cartier, the French jewelry house that had been associated with the British royal family since the Edwardian period. She owned several significant Cartier pieces, including a diamond and ruby bracelet and various brooches and earrings that reflected Cartier's distinctive aesthetic of bold color and geometric precision.

Her patronage of Cartier reflected her cosmopolitan tastes and her connection to the international social world of the mid-20th century. Margaret moved in circles that included artists, musicians, writers, and film stars, and her jewelry choices reflected the sophisticated, international aesthetic of this world rather than the more conservative tastes of the traditional British establishment.

The Snowdon Years: Jewelry and Marriage

Margaret's marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones (who became Lord Snowdon) in 1960 brought a new aesthetic influence into her jewelry life. Snowdon was a photographer and designer with a keen eye for visual style, and his influence on Margaret's public image — including her jewelry choices — was significant during the early years of their marriage.

The couple's social world — which included artists, designers, and creative figures from across the cultural spectrum — exposed Margaret to contemporary jewelry design and encouraged her to embrace pieces that reflected the aesthetic of the 1960s and 70s rather than the more traditional royal jewelry conventions.

Aquamarines and Colored Stones

Like her sister Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret had a fondness for colored stones — particularly aquamarines, which she wore in several significant pieces. Her aquamarine jewelry reflected the stone's calming, clarifying energy — properties that may have provided some balance to the emotional turbulence of her personal life.

In crystal healing, aquamarine is associated with the throat chakra — the energy center governing communication and self-expression. Its calming energy supports clear communication and emotional balance — qualities that Margaret, who was known for her sharp wit and her sometimes difficult relationships, may have benefited from in ways she did not consciously recognize.

Margaret's Jewelry Legacy

Princess Margaret's jewelry legacy is primarily one of style — she demonstrated that royal jewelry could be worn with individuality and flair, that inherited pieces could be combined with contemporary designs, and that a princess could express her personality through her jewelry choices without abandoning the traditions of royal adornment.

Her collection, sold at Christie's following her death, achieved prices that reflected both the quality of the pieces and the extraordinary premium of royal provenance. The Poltimore Tiara's sale price — nearly ten times its pre-sale estimate — demonstrated the enduring fascination with Margaret's jewelry and the power of her personal story to add value to the objects she owned.

For crystal healing practitioners, Margaret's story offers a reminder that jewelry can be a form of self-expression and self-care — a way of asserting identity, processing emotion, and navigating the constraints of one's circumstances with grace and style. Her bold, individual approach to royal jewelry was, in its own way, a form of healing — a daily assertion of selfhood in a role that demanded constant self-subordination.