A celebration of really expensive tiaras

Miss America, royal weddings, red carpets, Madonna – they all have their tiara moments. But my personal favorite happened on Friday Night Lights, the TV series about high school football in small-town Texas.

In a second-season episode, quarterback Matt Saracen accepts a postal delivery at the poverty-level tract house he shares with his grandmother, who’s suffering from dementia. He pulls a glittering crown from the box, looking panic-stricken. They’re barely scraping by on the money Matt makes flipping burgers.

“Is that my tiara?” Grandma calls out. She shuffles into the room in her robe and slippers, gasping with delight: “Look how pretty!” Matt’s friend Landry grins at his friend and agrees. “That’ll be beautiful for whenever you just zip over to the–”

“Twenty-four hundred dollars!” Matt exclaims, pulling out the receipt. “No, no, we’ve gotta send it back!” Grandma pops the tiara on her head with a beatific smile and shuffles back to the TV. “Boys,” she says, “you can’t put a price tag on happiness.”

A few cases in point:

Diamond tiara sold at Christie's Hong Kong in 2008 (Christie's Images)

This tiara boasts a 101.27ct diamond, the largest colorless diamond to appear at auction in 18 years. It sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in 2008 for $6.2 million.

Antique tiara of diamonds, sapphires, silver and gold, c. 1850 (Christie's Images)

Created in 1850, this antique foliate-wreath tiara of sapphires, old-cut and rose-cut diamonds mounted in silver and gold, sold for $100,144 last year at Christie’s London.

Tiara worn by Salma Hayek to a White House dinner (courtesy Royal Ontario Museum)

Salma Hayek wore this tiara designed by Cynthia Bachto to a 1998 White House dinner hosted by the Clintons, and it ended up in The Nature of Diamonds exhibit. Can you imagine Hillary herself wearing this at a state dinner, sitting at the head of the table in her crown? Everyone would have had to avoid looking at her to keep from giggling.

Tags: tiaras