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Timeless Beauty
Thank you @h.e.r_jewels for this great post!
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The Jewels of Princess Fawzia and the Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Wedding - Part II

The occasion of The Royal Union of the Crown Prince of Iran to the favorite sister of the King of Egypt brought Van Cleef & Arpels the commission of the century. All items ordered are very well documented however some of the actual jewels are missing to this day like the bride’s, Princess Fawzia, wedding diamond tiara and necklace.
The sublime tiara is made of 54 pear shaped diamonds weighing 92 carats and 530 baguette cut diamonds for 72 carats.
The necklace is a superb example of late Art Deco design from the French maison. Undoubtedly some of the most exquisite pieces of jewelry made in the late 1939. However what happened to Princess Fawzia VCA tiara and necklace? Let’s wish they reappear very soon

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Renaissance Revival style brooch-pendant made by the firm of Castellani in Rome circa. 1860-1900. The brooch-pendant is gold, with enamel, rubies, sapphires, and pearls. Castellani was famous for jewelry inspired by historical gold work including medieval and Renaissance styles. Currently the brooch-pendant is part of the V&A museum collection.

Shelled mollusks produce a “pearl” when a microscopic irritant is trapped within its mantle folds. The mollusk creates a pearl sac to seal off the irritation. This is a part of the mollusk’s defense mechanism against a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside the shell, or an attack from outside that injures the mantle tissue.
The mollusk’s mantle deposits layers of calcium carbonate in the form of the mineral aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite that are held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin. This combination is called nacre. Natural pearls are nearly 100% nacre (calcium carbonate and conchiolin). This secretion process is repeated many times, eventually producing a pearl.
Natural pearls are quite rare. This means that hundreds of pearl oysters or mussels must be gathered and opened just to find even one wild pearl. For this reason pearls were able to fetch extraordinary prices in the past. With the advent of cultured pearls there was a dip in the value of pearls as a reaction to the fact that they were now available to more than just the elite classes. In recent years there has been a steady increase in the value of natural pearls as buyers are drawn to the rarity of natural pearls once again.
“Gem” quality natural pearls are still very rare. Values are determined by size, shape, color, quality of surface, orient and luster.

*A pair of belle époque natural pearl and diamond pendent earrings, circa 1910
Sold by Bonhams in 2006.*

According to Hindu mythology, moonstone is made of solidified moonbeams.
Many legends say that moonstone brings good luck and some even believe that the stone allows you to that see the future if you hold a moonstone in your mouth during a full moon.
An Edwardian era diamond-set gold and moonstone brooch by Fabergé workmaster Alfred Thielemann, St Petersburg, ca. 1899-1903. Available from John Atzbach Antiques.

A Roman agate cameo circa 5th century AD
The stone depicts a hand tweaking an ear, a knotted diadem and a Greek inscription above reading “Remember me”. It was sold at auction in 2007.

The Maximilian Emerald is a 21.04-carat Colombian emerald. It was once set in a ring worn by Mexico’s doomed emperor, Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph. Ferdinand was an Austrian archduke who was crowned emperor of Mexico in 1864. Three years later he was executed during an uprising.
The emerald is currently seated in a platinum setting by Cartief, flanked by baguette-cut diamonds.
The ring was donated to the Smithsonian by Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post 1964. Marjorie Merriweather Post was heiress to the Post cereal fortune and a collector of French and Russian art. This ring is one of several major donations she generously gifted to the National Gem Collection. The Maximilian Emerald Ring is on display in the Gem Gallery at the National Museum of Natural History.

This gold and platinum tiara is adorned with 367 diamonds and has been valued at about $1.31 million. Until late last month it was locked up in a cabinet in the throne room of the Badisches Landesmuesum in the city of Karlsruhe. On April 29 the museum discovered it had been stolen.

The tiara once belonged to Grand Duchess Hilda von Baden. She was married to Grand Duke Friedrich II, who ascended to the throne in 1907 and ruled over the territory of Baden. A statement from the Badisches Landesmuesum says that the headpiece may have been crafted for the occasion of Friedrich II’s coronation. The couple’s reign, however, was short-lived: Friedrich II was forced to abdicate in 1918, after Germany’s defeat in WWI.

Baden-Wuerttemberg criminal police said they are now looking for witnesses who may have seen something suspicious around the time of the theft.

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.

Edwin Longsden Long (1829-1891) A Votary of Isis -1883

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