Pahlavi Crown Jewels
Pahlavi Crown Jewels
The Iranian National Treasury collection, held at the Central Bank in Tehran
The Pahlavi Crown Jewels — more accurately known in Iran as the Iranian Crown Jewels or the Treasury of National Jewels — are the gem-set regalia, loose stones, and historical objects accumulated by successive Persian dynasties over more than four centuries and held since 1955 as part of the national reserves at the Central Bank of Iran in Tehran. The collection is among the most significant royal gem holdings in the world, comprising tens of thousands of carats of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and pearls together with a number of objects — the Peacock Throne, the Naderi Throne, the Globe of Jewels, and the Darya-i-Noor diamond — that are individually among the most important pieces of historical jewellery in existence. Although strongly associated with the Pahlavi dynasty (1925 to 1979), the bulk of the collection predates Reza Shah's accession by centuries.
Historical accumulation
The collection's origins lie in the gem-rich treasuries of the Safavid dynasty (1501 to 1736), supplemented by the spoils brought back from Nader Shah Afshar's invasion of Mughal Delhi in 1739, which yielded an enormous quantity of gem-set objects from the Mughal imperial workshops. Among the stones that came into Persian possession at that point were the Darya-i-Noor (the Sea of Light), the original Koh-i-Noor (the Mountain of Light, which subsequently passed to the British Crown Jewels by way of the Sikh Empire), the Nur-ul-Ain (the Light of the Eye), and the Taj-e-Mah (the Crown of the Moon).
Further accumulation occurred under the Qajar dynasty (1796 to 1925) and continued under the Pahlavis, who commissioned the Pahlavi Crown of 1925 and the Empress Farah Crown of 1967 from the existing material. In 1937, Reza Shah formalised the legal status of the collection by transferring it to the Bank Melli Iran (later the Central Bank of Iran) as backing for the national currency, a status that has persisted through the change of regime in 1979.
The principal stones
The Darya-i-Noor is the largest pink diamond in the world, weighing approximately 182 carats, and is the centrepiece of the collection. It is set in a brooch-like frame designed in the late nineteenth century, with two smaller stones flanking it. The Nur-ul-Ain, weighing approximately 60 carats, is the principal stone of a tiara made in the 1958 by Harry Winston for the wedding of the future Empress Farah, and is generally considered to have been cut from the same original Mughal-era stone as the Darya-i-Noor. The Taj-e-Mah is a 116-carat unfaceted Mughal-cut diamond, and the collection also holds a number of additional historical pink and yellow diamonds.
The emerald collection is among the most significant in the world, with several stones in the hundreds of carats and the majority of the material of Colombian origin reaching Persia through the Mughal trade. The ruby and spinel collections likewise include a number of historically significant stones, with the spinel content reflecting the long Persian tradition of treating high-quality red spinel as a stone of imperial importance.
The principal objects
The Peacock Throne is the most celebrated single object in the collection, although the surviving throne is the eighteenth-century Sun Throne or Naderi Throne, made under the Qajar dynasty, rather than the original Mughal Peacock Throne which was largely dismantled and the gems redistributed after Nader Shah's death. The Globe of Jewels, completed in 1869 under the Qajar Nasir al-Din Shah, is a terrestrial globe set with approximately 51,366 stones — emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds — laid out to map the major continental and oceanic geographies in different stone colours. It weighs approximately 36 kilograms.
Other significant objects include the gem-set scimitars and ceremonial swords, the Pahlavi and Empress Farah crowns, the gem-set boxes and aigrettes from the Qajar court, and the various ceremonial robes and regalia.
Custody and access
The collection has been on public display since 1960 in the Treasury of National Jewels, located in the basement of the headquarters of the Central Bank of Iran in Tehran. The display is open to visitors on certain days of the week and is one of the principal cultural attractions of the Iranian capital. The collection is held as part of the national reserves and as backing for the Iranian currency, a legal status that has been preserved through both the imperial and the post-imperial periods.
The 1979 Islamic Revolution did not result in the dispersal of the collection, although a number of personal pieces belonging to the imperial family were taken into exile by the family. The bulk of the historical material remains in Iran. Allegations periodically surface that components of the collection have been sold or otherwise alienated, but the principal items have all been verified in situ in recent years.
In the historical record
The Iranian Crown Jewels, together with the Russian Diamond Fund in Moscow, the British Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, and the smaller national royal collections of Europe, constitute the principal surviving major royal gem holdings of the world. The Iranian collection is the most varied of these in the historical depth of its material, drawing on more than four centuries of Persian, Mughal, and Central Asian gem accumulation, and on the conspicuous reuse of antique stones in successive generations of regalia.