For centuries the wives of Iranian monarchs were not crowned, only the male ruler had that honor. Th

For centuries the wives of Iranian 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. There was a slight problem though. 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 are a part of the Imperial treasury were allowed to leave the 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 out of out of white gold and green velvet that is covered with diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, and spinels. The crown is part of the collection held at the Central Bank in Tehran.