The Crown of Empress Farah Pahlavi

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The Empress Crown: part of the coronation regalia used by the only Empress of Iran, Farah Pahlavi.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had already ruled Iran for two decades when he married Farah Dina in 1959, but he not yet had his official coronation. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi put off his coronation saying that he believed he could only be crowned when he truly felt he deserved it. That time came in 1967; the coronation would take place in October of that year and it was set to break with tradition.

The Empress Farah's crown is white gold and green velvet covered with diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, and spinels.

In a move reminiscent of Napoleon and Josephine, Emperor Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowned his wife, Empress Farah, at their coronation in 1967.

Empress Farah

For centuries the wives of monarchs were not crowned; only the male ruler had that honor. This changed with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In a nod to the White Revolution's mandate on the emancipation of women, Emperor Pahlavi was determined to also have his consort crowned; however, there was a slight problem: since it had been centuries since an Iranian empress had been crowned, there was no appropriate crown available. The honorable task of making the new crown would fall to Van Cleef and Arpels. As was dictated by tradition, the gems used in the crown and coronation jewelry were selected from loose stones already in the Imperial treasury. None of the items that were part of the Imperial treasury were allowed to leave Iran so Van Cleef & Arpels had to send a team of jewelers to Tehran in order to construct the crown. While there, the team, Farah, and other important people in the Iranian government were consulted on the design aspects so that the finished product would be perfect. The crown ended up taking six months to complete. 

The crown itself is made from white gold and green velvet, covered with diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, and spinels. 

By early 1978, the rising discontent in Iran had started to become more evident, eventually leading to demonstrations against the monarchy. The Empress recalled in her memoirs that "there was an increasingly palpable sense of unease".  By the year's end riots and political unrest had reached a head and martial law was put into effect. The country was on the verge of open revolution.
On January 16, 1979 both the Emperor and Empress decided to leave the country and begin a life in exile. Empress Farah would be the first and the last Empress to wear the magnificent crown.

When the Iranian revolution occurred it was thought that the Iranian crown jewels might have been lost. Miraculously, most of the collection remained intact and the jewels were put on public display under the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani in the 1990s at the Central Bank in Tehran.

To read more about the Empress and her life I suggest checking out her memoir An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah: A Memoir . 

Women's Sufferage

Jewelry Photos: 1908-12 "Votes for Women" enameled brooch in Suffragette colors made by the artist and enamelist Ernestine Mills.

Unknown artist circa 1905 Suffrage colored bow featuring: amethyst, diamond and, demantoid garnets in a platinum.

Child & Child Women's Suffrage necklace circa 1908, featuring amethyst, pearls, and green enamel work on gold.

Suffrage era jewelry has always been one of my favorites. Support, protest, and adornment all rolled into one. With another election race firing up it is a good time to look back and reflect on all the struggles that so many have faced (in many countries) in the pursuit of the right to vote. 
Women's suffrage (the right to vote) in the United States was established over the course of several decades, first in various states and localities, sometimes on a limited basis, and then nationally in 1920. The movement in both Britain and the US relied on color as a means of instant recognition. 
British suffrage colors - purple, white, and green, to symbolize loyalty, purity, and hope. 

    
Gold banner with purple lettering produced by the National Woman's Party. The Party, in spite of its close ties to the British movement, adopted the traditional American color of gold.

In America we see the use of gold or yellow coupled with a variety of subordinate colors. Gold/yellow ribbons and flowers were popular. During the nation's centennial celebrations in 1876, suffrage supporters sang "The Yellow Ribbon" song that associated the color with "God's own primal color; born of purity and light" and with the "flame of freedom's fires." American women later adopted a second color scheme of the tricolors purple, white, and green which originated with the Women's Social and Political Union in the British suffrage movement. Later, this would change to purple, white, and gold. 
We see these color schemes throughout the decades long fight for suffrage.  The beautiful and quietly powerful jewelry pieces created during the fight for women's equality would have signaled the wearer's support for the movement, with or without a slogan, even when the wearer was silent. 

    Gold pen used in the suffrage signing ceremony when the Senate passed the Amendment. The pen is housed in the Women's History Collections, Political Collections of the Division of Social History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Kathleen Marino M.A, G.G., AJP, NAJA