Kate Middleton’s Tiara Wear Saw Royal Heirloom for First Time in 100 Years

Kate Middleton dusted off an incredibly rare treasure from the royal vault when she became the first to wear the Strathmore Rose Tiara ​​in nearly a century.

The Princess of Wales, now 43, delighted royal watchers in November 2023 when she sported the Strathmore Rose Tiara to the state banquet celebrating the state visit from South Korea at Buckingham Palace. 

The delicate headpiece had not been worn in over 90 years (since the 1930s!) and was a major fashion statement for Princess Kate. She became just the second person to publicly wear the tiara ever, and the sparkler was only the fourth tiara she had ever worn during her royal life to date.

The Strathmore Rose Tiara features five diamond roses across a floral band and originally belonged to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Queen Elizabeth’s mother received the sparkler as a wedding present from her father, the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, when she married the future King George VI in 1923 and memorably wore it for a series of portraits with him.

The exact date of the photo session is unclear, and The Court Jeweller reported that the Queen Mother was last photographed wearing the sentimental headtopper in the 1930s.

Queen Elizabeth never wore the unique sparkler during her record reign, escalating the excitement when Princess Kate did.

The tiara wear was interpreted as a deliberate tribute to King Charles, who was very close to his grandmother who died in 2002, and underscored the bond that Kate and the King share. 

“Kate has always signaled that she’d like to emulate the Queen Mother’s royal role and wearing her jewels is an important symbol of that continuity,” Court Jeweller blogger Lauren Kiehna exclusively told PEOPLE at the time. 

“It’s fitting that Kate — likely with some assistance from King Charles — would choose to wear the tiara exactly a hundred years after the Queen Mother originally received it. The piece is an antique that wasn’t fashionable for many decades, but many jewels once considered fussy or unstylish have now been embraced again,” she added.

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Bethan Holt, fashion director of The Daily Telegraph, likened the the rare tiara to a “lost treasure.”

“I think it’s lovely as the King was so close to the Queen Mother and knowing that one of her most precious pieces of jewelry is being worn by his daughter-in-law gives a really emotional tie between the generations,” Holt told PEOPLE.

“It has been said that Kate has looked for inspiration to the Queen Mother in terms of how she conducted herself and so to have that tiara symbolizing that, in such a public moment, I think it is really significant. I think if there was anyone to wear that tiara, it was Kate; she was the woman to wear it and carry it forward.”