Spiky Tourmaline Tiara

Gold tiara in gold and silver spiky design, with a bottom band and a small arch that comes to a point. The tiara is studded with brilliant- and circular-cut diamonds and circular-cut green tourmalines.

Look at the glorious spikiness of this tiara! It was created in 1966 and is composed of gold and silver spikes and studded with circular diamonds and green tourmalines.

This tiara is really being kept on the down low - the only pictures are from the 2019 Sotheby's auction page. There's not even a picture of anyone wearing it, which I think is a shame. Who sold it? Who owns it now? Who knows! It is absolutely lovely, though, and I would wear this in a heartbeat.

Almost as fascinating as the tiara is the story of its creator, Charles de Temple. He was born in Mexico in a traveling circus and was the illegitimate son of Tom Mix, an American film actor who became one of the first Western stars. Charles ended up in America and had a brief turn as a nightclub singer and an actor before taking up goldsmithing.

He subsequently moved to England in the late 1950s and became part of the modern jewelry movement along with Andrew Grima. He was influenced by both modern abstract art and nature forms and his specialty was creating abstract, free-form gold jewelry.

This is the only tiara created by de Temple but he made some other famous pieces, namely the wedding ring from the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service and also the gold finger from the movie, Goldfinger.

bi-coloured openwork band composed of letters spelling the phrase 'All the Time in the World' around both the exterior and interior

wedding ring from On Her Majesty's Secret Service source

Here are a few more examples of de Temple's jewelry style.

from left to right, a gold necklace with a series of embossed fringes with the 3 in the middle studded with cabochon emeralds; bicolored brooch in the shape of an eye, studded with diamonds and a huge central aquamarine; a gold ring in an organic shape studded with diamonds and 2 large South Sea baroque pearls; gold stylised organic star shape brooch with studded with pearls and a synthetic blue star sapphire in the middle

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In some ways de Temple is almost as mysterious as his tiara. When trying to look up biographical information on him, nothing was entirely clear cut although the facts I presented seem to be consistent. He has since passed but I have found 3 different dates (unknown, 2008, 2019) and I'm not sure if any one of them is correct.

I hope you've enjoyed this look at a truly unique tiara!

image of a white rabbit popping out of his rabbit hole, looking around, and going back in. His rabbit hole is surrounded by grass and some carrots in the ground.

Exploring Green Tourmaline: Is It Rare and Valuable?
Tourmaline: Earth's most colorful mineral and gem material
The Day Tom Mix Died - Long read on the life, times and death of Tom Mix.
Tom Mix Died Here - Much shorter article about the monument to his death if you just want to know the basic details. (Fun fact: I've been to this memorial! It's within driving distance for me.)
Andrew Grima Modernist Jewelry Design and His Iconic Pieces- a look at Andrew Grima's life and work.

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