19th century France played an important role as a center of high European culture, which was greatly influenced by other ethnic traditions.   The many influences in the art of French jewelers in the late 19th - early 20th centuries are discussed in the work of Peter Hinks (19th Century Jewelry, London, 1975), Gere Charlotte (American and European Jewelry, Crown, 1975), Burges Frederick (Antique Jewelry and Trinkets, London, N.Y., 1919), and many others.

Analyzing the art of jewelry of France of this period, many researchers point out the Eastern influences. Along with Indian and Japanese elements, we would like to highlight strong influence of Central Asia, proven by the comparative analysis of head jewelry of Europe and Central Asia.

The author was compelled to write this article after conducting an analysis of a tiara that belonged to Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. As a result of this analysis, it was established that this kind of head jewelry was popular in England, Vienna and St. Petersburg (The Belle Époque of French Jewelry, 1850 - 1910).

From the ancient times, frontal (forehead) adornments indicated the wearer’s social standing. This type of adornments was often used as part of a wedding ensemble. The use of diadems in the ancient period has been illustrated not only by the original findings, such as a plate depicting geese  from the Oxus treasure (2nd century A.D.) located in British museum in London and found  in the late 19th century on the territory of Central Asia (south of Tadzhikistan, Dalton O. , 1964), but also in the written sources.

The Tillya-tepe diadem, discovered in Tsar’s necropolis on the territory of modern Afghanistan, was fashioned out of finest gold (Sarianidi V., Bactrian Gold, L., 1985). In the ancient era, northern Afghanistan was part of a common territory with southern regions of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

We suggest that Central Asian diadems called Tillya-kosh (Tilla-Kosh) represented one of the types of frontal adornments and were made in the traditional style of similar articles on Tillya tepe.
It is possible that this type of head adornment merged the features of frontal fillets and gold flower garlands favored by different peoples in the ancient period (FakhretdinovaD., Yuvelirnoe iskusstvo Uzbekistana, Tashkent, 1988, p. 97).

It seems appropriate to mention the images of gods and celestial musicians that appear in the Eastern paintings, ceramics, sculpture, and reliefs (reliefs of Ayrtama, ceramics of Dilberdzhin, etc.).

Each adornment reflected historical and cultural changes characteristic for each given era.
Scientists and ethnographers studying Central Asia -- Sukhareva O.,  Borozna N., Chvyr L. -- described the Tillya-kosh frontal adornment as an open-work diadem decorated with precious or semi-precious stones, and later with colored glass.

Made in the shape of “gold eyebrows” - tillya-kosh (Tadzhik., Uzb.), the diadem is typical for such regions as Samarkand, Tashkent, and Ura-Tyube. Earlier researcher A. Shishov  (Sarty, Sb. materialov dlya statistiki Syrdaryinskoj oblasti, tX1, Tashkent, 1904) offered the following description of the diadem: “The Tillya-kosh diadem consists of massive silver plates cut in the shape of curved eyebrows, heart-shaped pendants are attached below, a thinner plate is soldered along the upper edge, forming a beautiful complex pattern.”

In D. Fahretdinova’s monograph (1988), the author gives a detailed analysis of the imagery of the wedding diadem of Tillya-kosh, which symbolizes purity and virginity.

The design of the Tillya-kosh diadem was replicated by French jewelers of firms such as “Maison Cartier,”“Maison Choumet'” (Maison Choumet is a large clan of jewelers from Schwabisch Hall popular in Paris for more than two hundred fifty years), as well as early works of Bapst (founded in 1725, Bapst began to make crowns in1788).
Thanks to the detailed analysis of diadems, we know that French jewelers tended to preserve the upper part of Tillya-kosh; however, the familiar to us row of turquoise that symbolized both the celestial sphere and water element) was frequently substituted for diamonds popular in Europe in that time period. According to The Continuum Encyclopedia Of Symbols (Udo Becker, N.Y. 1994, p.83), diamonds symbolize cleanliness, spirituality and constancy. In India, for example, diamond is a symbol of  immortality -- Buddha's throne is made out of diamonds. Europeans believed that diamond had healing powers, could protect from poisoning, drive away wild animals, witches, and ghosts. Diamond could also make its wearer invisible and assist men in pursuing women. During Renaissance, diamonds symbolized courage and audacity.

Paying most of the attention to the decorative effects, French made considerable changes to the inner symbolism of the diadems of Central Asia that were based on Buddhism and traditional skills of Indian jewelers of this era. However, the connection between the two schools of jewelry making is evident.
In the French diadem, the center is an open torn circle, rather than a semi-circle.