How Kate Middleton's Rare Tiara Wear Reflects Her Close Bond with King Charles

The Princess of Wales is now only the second person to shimmer in the Strathmore Rose tiara

Was Kate Middleton’s latest tiara a subtle tribute to King Charles?

On Tuesday evening, the Princess of Wales, 41, wore the Strathmore Rose tiara to the Buckingham Palace banquet celebrating the South Korean state visit to the U.K. The tiara wear was an exciting surprise because it was Princess Kate’s first time sporting the sparkler and the piece had not been seen for nearly a century, since the 1930s.

The Strathmore Rose tiara originally belonged to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and Kate became just the second person to wear the Strathmore Rose tiara in public at the state dinner. The fashion statement signaled a sentimental connection to King Charles’ beloved grandmother, and Lauren Kiehna of The Court Jeweller tells PEOPLE the tribute was deliberate.

"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," says Kiehna. "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.”

Related: Kate Middleton Has Major Princess Moment in Diamond Tiara That Hasn't Been Worn Since the 1930s

Breaking down the way Princess Kate wore the floral headpiece, Kiehna continued, "The tiara comes with two frames, allowing it to be worn either across the forehead or on top of the head. The Queen Mother used it both ways, and Kate chose the more traditional setting for the banquet.”

The Queen Mother received the all-diamond Strathmore Rose tiara as a wedding gift from her father, the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, when she married Prince Albert, the Duke of York (the future King George VI) in 1923.

While Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (as she was known at the time) did not wear the tiara for her wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 26, 1923, she later slipped it on for an official wedding photo with her groom.

Related: The Tiaras We Never See! The Glitziest Headpieces Hidden Away in the Royal Vault

Queen Elizabeth’s mother sported the Strathmore Rose tiara for other portrait sessions in the 1920s and 1930s, The Court Jeweller reported. She stylishly wore it across her forehead — a truly royal spin on the flapper trend at the time!

The Queen Mother then seemed to send the sparkler into the royal vault and reached for larger tiaras following the unexpected accession of her husband in 1936.

King Charles, 75, was famously close to his grandmother, who died in 2002, and Princess Kate bringing the tiara back into the public eye is likely a nod to her bond with the monarch.

While speaking at the state banquet speech during his state visit to Kenya in October with Queen Camilla, the monarch touched on how his son Prince William proposed to Kate in the country in 2010, affectionately referencing her as "my beloved daughter-in-law."

Charles even proposed to Camilla in 2005 with an art deco-style emerald-cut diamond ring that had belonged to his grandmother.

Commenting on the bond between them, royal historian Gareth Russell previously told PEOPLE, "In some ways, the Queen Mother was a mother figure to Charles just because the Queen became Queen when Charles was so young. There were a lot of tours of the Commonwealth and every time the Queen had to go away, Prince Charles stayed with the Queen Mother.”

"They had a great sense of humor, and she always encouraged him,” added the author of Do Let's Have Another Drink!: The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

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Princess Kate wasn’t the only one who made a debut statement in an heirloom tiara at the state banquet held in honor of the President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeo and First Lady Kim Keon Hee on Tuesday.

Queen Camilla shimmered in the Burmese Ruby tiara, wearing the ruby and diamond headpiece from Queen Elizabeth’s collection for the first time. 

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