The Russian Crown Jewels
The Orlov diamond is here -
The Kimberly Diamond is here - Faberge
Coronation Egg -
Diadem Linked to the History of the House of Romanovs
The Great Imperial Crown was made by a skilled court
jeweller Jeremia Posier for the Empress Catherine II the Great's Coronation in
1762. It has a traditional shape and is made up of the two open hemispheres
divided by a foliate garland and fastened with a low hoop.
The crown is set
with 5,000 selected Indian diamonds (some Russian sources state this number as
4,836) and a number of fine, large white pearls.
The crown is also decorated
with one of the seven historic stones of the Russia's Diamond Collection - a
large precious red spinel weighing 398.72 carats which was brought to Russia by
Nicholas Spafary, the Russian envoy to China from 1675 to 1678.
The Shah is an 88.70-carat, bar-shaped, partially polished
diamond bearing three engraved markings. It was probably found in Golconda,
India. The first engraving reads "Bourhan-Nizam-Shah-II, 1000" (Mohammedan
calender), which places the stone in the hands of the ruler of the Indian province of Achmednager in 1591.
The next one reads, "Son of Jehangir Shah-Jehan
Shah, 1051." This refers to Shah Jehan, who completed the bejeweled
Peacock Throne and built the Taj Mahal (meaning "Elect of the
Palace") for his beloved Queen, Mumtaz Mahal; the date corresponds to 1641.
He and Mumtaz had a beautiful romance. They met while the
Emperor was still young Prince Khurrum. Mumtaz was the daughter of a
high-ranking palace official and was of Persian extraction. She had white skin
and curling black hair that fell on her shoulders. Persian miniatures show her
wearing a flaring crownlike headdress, thickly jeweled, and earrings that fell
to her shoulders. She was married to the Prince in 1615 and shared all his
campaigns throughout India, meanwhile bearing fourteen children.
The Shah's shape, similar to a quartz crystal, is one of the
most unusual in the world of famous diamonds.
Jehan ascended the throne in 1627 and was proclaimed Shah
of Agra, near Delhi, the following year. The coronation festivities are said to
have cost more than seven million dollars. The Shah was weighed and a like
amount of gold, silver and gems distributed to the people. But poor Mumtaz
lived only a short time after. She died in 1631 in the Deccan, the region of
Golconda, while on another expidition with her husband. Jehan then made the
construction of the edifice, requiring fourteen years, a major effort of his life.
The Shah is believed to be the stone that Tavernier, the
French jeweler and traveler, saw dangling before the throne at the Court of
Aurungzeb, Jehan's son, in 1665. (Before the completion of Shah Jehan's reign,
Aurungzeb rose against his father, imprisoned him and usurped his throne.) How
the gem was later carried to Persia is not definately known; it is possible,
however, that Nadir Shah, the Persian conqueror of India, took it in 1739 when
he seized the Great Mogul's treasures during the sack of Delhi.
It was during this time that the great diamond was in the
possession of the Persian rulers that the third inscription, "Kadjar Fath
Ali Shah," who was the Shah of Persia in 1824, was engraved on it. A tiny
furrow was also cut on the diamond, possibly to take the cord on which it was
suspended.
In 1829, the Shah was given to Czar Nicholas I of Russia
by the Persian Government in appeasement for the assassination of the Russian
Ambassador, Alexander Griboyedoff, in Teheren; thus, it became part of the Crown Jewels of that country.
In 1914, when World War I broke out, the diamond was sent
to St. Petersburg to Moscow for safekeeping. After the Revolution, when the
strong boxes were opened in 1922 by the new regime, the Shah was amoung the
treasures. It is now one of the prize possessions in the Russian Treasury of Diamonds & Precious Stones in the Kremlin.
The Imperial Orb was made of the so called "red
gold" for the Empress Catherine II the Great's Coronation in 1762. It is a
polished hollow ball with with a cross and is encircled with the two rows of
the large diamonds, and the sapphire on the top weighs about 47 carats.
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The Russian Crown Jewels
