According to Christie's Auction House, the Portland Tiara was "designed as a series of twelve graduated cushion-shaped sapphire and old-cut diamond clusters to the openwork frame of diamond-set swag and husk motifs, embellished with bouton-shaped pearls and diamond line borders to the pear-shaped pearl finials and sapphire collet accents mounted in silver and gold."
The tiara is thought to have been made by E. Woldd & Co. for Garrard shortly after the 6th Duke of Portland's marriage in 1889. The 1887 family inventory notes that several of the family jewels were dismantled to construct the tiara.
A painted miniature on ivory of Ivy, Duchess of Portland (1887-1982), when she was Marchioness of Titchfield, depicts her wearing the tiara and the matching stomacher brooch. Ivy was the wife of the 7th Duke of Portland.
On December 1, 2010, the present Duke of Portland offered the tiara for sale through Christie's of London. It sold for a reported £763,650 or $1,188,239.
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