Symbols of honor and rank, tiaras have their roots in antiquity where they were given to triumphant athletes and warriors. But in more recent history, tiaras have been associated with European courtly life. In March 1938 Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild traveled from Vienna to London to celebrate the opening of an art exhibition. The English-born Clarice brought this spectacular diamond tiara, which can be worn alternatively as a necklace, with her on the trip. This London visit saved Clarice’s tiara/necklace, and the other jewelry she was traveling with, from being seized in the Anschluss with her other jewels. Amazingly the family managed to keep, rather than sell, the jewelry during World War II, and it subsequently descended in the Austrian branch of the Rothschild family. While unmarked, the tiara was likely made by the Parisian jeweler Boucheron around 1903. The Rothchilds were important clients, and a photograph of an identical tiara exists in the firm’s archives.