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 . 

Mary Todd Lincoln's Tiffany Seed Pearl Parure

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Mary Todd Lincoln wearing the seed pearl jewelry suite. Photo taken in the studio of Mathew Brady

In 1861 president Lincoln purchased a demi-parure of seed pearl jewelry, from Tiffany &Co., for his wife and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln to wear to the President's inaugural ball. The complete parure (suite) of seed pearl jewelry would have consists of a collar necklace, a pair of bracelets, a pair of earrings, one or possibly two brooches, and a corsage brooch and cost around $1,000. President Lincoln, however opted to purchase a less expensive demi-parure consisting of a necklace and a pair of bracelets only, which cost $530.

The Tiffany seed pearl demi-parure

One of the seed pearl bracelets

Seed pearls arranged in a rosette shape with a silver band. Both bracelets were identicle.

The seed pearl necklace

Seed peals arranged in a rosette shape. The necklace is choker length.

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln wearing the Tiffany seed pearl jewelry demi-parure.

Photograph taken at the Washington studio of Mathew Brady.  

President Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States

During a time when the nation was standing on the precipice of war many of Lincoln's political adversaries criticized the money that was spent on the First Lady's jewelry and gown ( her gown cost an astounding $2,000). 

Empress Eugénie’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara

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The tiara was made by Gabriel Lemonnier around 1853, and was commissioned by Napoleon III to celebrate his marriage to Eugénie de Montijo (1826-1920). It has an astounding 212 pearls and 1998 diamonds. The tiara that was created for Eugénie is part of a parure which included bracelets, a stomacher, and a six strand pearl necklace. 
The pearls and diamonds that were used to create the tiara belonged to the French state treasury in the form of jewelry that had belonged to Empress Marie Louise (1791-1847, second wife of Napoleon I) and the Duchess of Angoulême (1778-1851). Because of this the tiara actually belonged to the state, not Eugenie. The tiara and other state jewels were subsequently returned to the state when she was exiled from France after Napoleon III’s 1870 defeat. 

Empress Eugénie, as painted by Winterhalter, Princess Margarethe of Thurn and Taxis, Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis

The tiara was part of the crown jewels until the Third Republic decided to sell the entire collection in 1887. The tiara was eventually purchased by Prince Albert I of Thurn and Taxis as a wedding gift to his bride Archduchess Margarethe Klementine of Austria in 1890. The tiara remained a part of the Thurn and Taxis family for the next century. In 1989 the tiara was given to Prince Johannes future wife Gloria who wore the tiara on her wedding day.

Princess Gloria (the “Punk Princess”) was known for her unique fashion combining family jewels with wild outfits and hairstyles. In 1992 her husband, Prince Johannes, died leaving large amounts of debt. As a result Gloria sold a lot of the family’s jewelry collection. Empress Eugénie’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara was sold for 935,000 Deutsche Marks. The tiara did not however end up in another a personal collection. Instead it was bought by the Friends of the Louvre, who gifted it to the museum. It now resides in that Paris museum along with other recovered French jewels. 

The Swedish Cameo Tiara

Princess Victoria of Sweden in the Cameo Tiara during her 2010 wedding

The Swedish tiaras are some of the oldest still in use, and the cameo tiara is one of them. Brides of the Swedish royal family have traditionally worn the Cameo Tiara as their wedding crown for decades and it was again in the spotlight when it was worn by princess Victoria of Sweden at her wedding to Daniel Westling on the 19th of June, 2010; however, the history of the tiara goes back much further.. 

Detail, Jacques-Louis David's The Coronation of Napoleon (1807) {Source}

In 1804, Napoléon Bonaparte was crowned emperor at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris and his wife, Joséphine, was crowned empress. Joséphine was born in Martinique, the daughter of a wealthy Creole planter. She had previously been married to Alexandre de Beauharnais, a French aristocrat who had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
With her new title came a need to amass a vast collection of jewelry befitting that title. Among them was a parure (set) of cameo (a design, carved in relief, into a hard stone or shell) jewels, apparently made for her by her husband's court jeweler, Marie-Étienne Nitot. The set included a grand tiara in gold set with pearls and large Neo-Classical style cameos. It also included a necklace, a bracelet, and a pair of earrings. Cameos were quite popular during the time, especially those depicting classical mythological imagery. The style of the age was heavily influenced by the Ancient Roman Republic and its many archaeological treasures, which were being rediscovered starting in the 18th century. 
It is interesting to note that the seven cameos used in this tiara were actually made first and were not intended to go together which is why they are all different in size and color.

Anne-Louis Girodet's portrait of Hortense de Beauharnais {Source}

Joséphine had two children, Eugène and Hortense, with her previous husband Alexandre; however, she was not able to provide Napoléon with a biological heir to the French throne. At around 1810, he divorced her and married Marie Louise of Austria, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor. Joséphine relocated to the Château de Malmaison near Paris, taking her jewelry along with her. 
In 1812 Joséphine loaned the cameos to her daughter, Hortense, who had briefly been Queen of Holland during the first decade of the nineteenth century. Hortense wore the cameos in a portrait painted by Anne-Louis Girodet. This is the first known depiction of the cameos.
Joséphine died of pneumonia in 1814. As was the custom, an inventory of her jewels was taken at the time of her death, but historian Trond Norén Isaksen noted the cameo parure was not included in this inventory. Exactly what happened to the cameos after her death is a bit unclear.  Writer Vincent Meylan argues that her son, Eugène, received them when he and his sister Hortense were given their mother's jewels to divide. His evidence for this claim may be sound as the set reappears again in the line of Joséphine's son Eugène.

Eugène married Princess Augusta of Bavaria in a dynastic wedding eight years earlier at the behest of Napoléon, and by 1814 he was living in Munich at the court of his father-in-law with Augusta and their children. Eugène and Augusta's eldest daughter, Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, married Crown Prince Oscar of Sweden and Norway in 1823. Her marriage was also a dynastic one, having been arranged by Oscar's father, King Carl XIV Johan. Interestingly though Oscar is a Swedish prince, his family's roots are just as French as Joséphine's. His father was born Jean Bernadotte and served as a Marshal in the Empire under Napoléon prior to being elected as Sweden's future king. Oscar's mother, Désirée Clary, had been engaged to Napoléon until he met Joséphine de Beauharnais; in Sweden, she is known as Queen Desideria.
It is very likely that Joséphine of Leuchtenberg received her grandmother's cameo parure as a wedding gift from her father, taking the set with her to Stockholm. Upon her marriage she would be known by the Swedish version of her name: Josefina.

                   Fredric Westin's Bernadottes of Sweden 1837 {Source}

In this 1837 painting by Fredric Westin, the Swedish royal family is pictured, including King Carl XIV Johan, Queen Desideria, Crown Prince Oscar, Crown Princess Josefina, and their five children, Prince Carl, Prince Gustaf, Prince Oscar, Princess Eugenie, and Prince August. In the portrait, Josefina is depicted wearing her grandmother's cameo tiara.
In the portrait depicting an aging Josephina (circa 1890's) we again can see the tiara in all its glory. 

               Queen Josefina of Sweden by Bertha Valerius {source}

When Josefina died in Stockholm, the cameo parure was inherited by her only daughter, Princess Eugenie. Eugenie (a gifted artist) never married, but instead devoted her life to artistic pursuits and charitable causes. Upon her death, the cameos are inherited by her nephew, Prince Eugen. Like his aunt before him, Eugen was also a gifted artist and also never married.
Eugen often lent the cameos them to another member of the Swedish royal family: Crown Princess Margareta who was the wife of Eugen's nephew, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf. Margareta donned the tiara to wear at the wedding of her husband's cousin, Count Carl Bernadotte af Wisborg. Famously she went into her children's nursery before leaving for the wedding, and gave them a history lesson by showing them a tiara that had been worn by Empress Joséphine of France.
In 1932 Prince Eugen gave the cameo parure to another Swedish royal, Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on the occasion of her marriage to Prince Gustaf Adolf, the eldest son of Crown Prince Gustaf Sibylla in turn lent it to her sister-in-law, the future Queen Ingrid of Denmark, for a costume ball where she dressed as Queen Josephina. 

                    Left to Right: Queen Josephina, Crown Princess Margareta, Princess Ingrid (later Queen of Denmark), Princess Sibylla

Queen Silvia in the Cameos

While the parure was still in Sibylla's posession, a family tradition began. The Cameo Tiara began to be used as a wedding crown. Two of Queen Sibylla's used it for their weddings: Princess Birgitta in 1961 and Princess Désirée in 1964. In 1972 Princess Sibylla died of cancer in Stockholm, leaving the cameo parure to her son, Prince Carl Gustaf.  Carl Gustaf is crowned king in 1973 and in 1976 when he married Silvia Sommerlath, she carried on the tradition.
The cameos and the tiara in particular are now shared with the first of her daughters to marry, Crown Princess Victoria in 2010.

                                 Left to Right: Princess Birgitta, Princess Désirée, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria

On a final note, it is not uncommon to see tiara remade over time and one will easily see the incarnations of the tiara over the years to suit the styles of the time and the taste of the wearer. It is, however remarkable that such a beautiful piece of history exists and that it is still in use. 

Kathleen Marino MA, GG, NAJA

With special thanks to The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor and The Court Jeweller