Russian Imperial Regalia — The Romanov Crown Jewels
Russian Imperial Regalia — The Romanov Crown Jewels
The Imperial Crown, Orb, Sceptre, and the named historic stones held at the Kremlin Diamond Fund
The Russian Imperial Regalia are the ceremonial gemstones, crowns, sceptres, orbs, and parures of the Russian Empire, produced for the coronations and state functions of the Romanov dynasty from Peter the Great to Nicholas II. The principal pieces are held at the Diamond Fund inside the Moscow Kremlin Armoury, having survived the 1917 Revolution by virtue of inalienable state-property designation under the post-Revolutionary government. The collection is one of the four major surviving European royal regalia collections, alongside the British Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, the surviving French regalia at the Louvre and the Apollo Gallery, and the residual Holy Roman Imperial regalia at the Imperial Treasury in Vienna.
The Imperial Crown of 1762
The Great Imperial Crown of Russia, made for Catherine the Great's coronation in 1762, is the central piece of the regalia. The crown was designed and executed by court jeweller Jérémie Pauzié in Saint Petersburg over a two-month working period. It is set with 4,936 diamonds totalling approximately 2,858 carats, divided into the upper diamond hemisphere and the lower diamond hemisphere joined by a central diamond arch. Twin rows of large pearls — 75 pearls in total — divide the diamond fields. The crown is surmounted by a 398.72-carat red spinel of Burmese origin, brought to Moscow by Russian envoy Nikolay Spafariy in the 1670s and historically misidentified as a ruby in pre-modern documentation.
Pauzié's design borrows from Byzantine, Persian, and contemporary European royal vocabulary. The form — a divided hemisphere arch — derives from the Holy Roman Imperial Crown via Byzantine intermediaries. The crown weighs approximately 1.95 kilograms and was used for Russian coronations from Catherine the Great through Nicholas II.
The Imperial Sceptre and the Orlov diamond
The Imperial Sceptre holds the Orlov diamond at its tip — a 189.62-carat Indian diamond cut in the high-domed rose-cut form characteristic of pre-1700 Indian cutting. The stone reached Russia in 1774, purchased in Amsterdam by Count Grigory Orlov as a gift to Catherine the Great in an attempt to recover her favour after his political eclipse. The provenance traces from Golconda in southern India through Persia to Amsterdam to the Russian court. The sceptre itself is gold with diamond and enamel ornament and is used in conjunction with the Imperial Crown for coronation regalia.
The Imperial Orb
The Imperial Orb of 1762 — also by Pauzié — is a sphere of polished gold girdled with two rows of large diamonds and surmounted by a 200-carat Sri Lankan sapphire of fine blue colour. A diamond cross tops the sapphire. The piece holds approximately 1,370 diamonds in total. The orb represents the temporal sovereignty of the Imperial office and is paired with the sceptre in coronation use.
The Shah diamond
The Shah is a 88.7-carat yellowish-brown table-cut diamond inscribed in Persian script with the names of three of its historic owners — Burhan Nizam Shah II of Ahmednagar (1591), Jahangir Shah (1641), and Fath Ali Shah of Persia (1824). The stone was presented to Tsar Nicholas I in 1829 by the Persian Crown Prince as recompense for the death of Russian envoy Alexander Griboyedov in the storming of the Russian embassy in Tehran earlier that year. The inscription history makes the Shah one of the most thoroughly documented historic diamonds. It is held at the Diamond Fund as an unmounted stone.
The Small Imperial Crown
The Small Imperial Crown of 1801 — made for the Empress Consort by court jeweller Jacob Duval — is a smaller-scale version of the Great Imperial Crown form, set with approximately 1,300 diamonds totalling around 350 carats. It was used by the consorts of the Tsars at coronation and at major court functions. The piece survives intact in the Diamond Fund and is displayed alongside the Great Imperial Crown.
Imperial diadems and parures
Beyond the central regalia, the Diamond Fund holds Imperial diadems and parures including the Russian Beauty kokoshnik diadem (a 1987 Soviet recreation), the Diamond Bouquet (an Imperial parure from the eighteenth century), and a series of major coloured-stone parures incorporating Sri Lankan sapphires, Colombian emeralds, and Burmese rubies acquired by the Imperial court through European agents. These pieces represent the everyday ceremonial jewellery of the Imperial family, distinct from the central regalia used at coronation.
1917 to 1922 nationalisation
After the 1917 Revolution, the Bolshevik government nationalised the regalia and the broader Imperial jewellery collection. The most consequential decisions were taken between 1917 and 1925: the central regalia and the named historic stones were retained as inalienable state property, while a substantial portion of secondary Imperial pieces were sold abroad through the Antikvariat agency in 1928 to 1934. The Diamond Fund was formally established by Lenin's decree in 1922. The 1928 to 1934 sales placed major pieces — including a number of Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs and the so-called Marie Antoinette earrings — in foreign collections, where many remain.
Public access
The Imperial Regalia are on permanent display at the Diamond Fund inside the Moscow Kremlin Armoury, accessible by separately ticketed timed entry. Photography is prohibited and security is comparable to airport standards. International loans of regalia pieces are infrequent — the 1996 to 1997 Treasury of the Czars exhibition in Houston and Saint Petersburg was the most prominent recent loan. The collection is otherwise resident in Moscow.
Position in scholarship
For dealers, historians, and authenticators of Russian Imperial jewellery, the Diamond Fund is the primary reference collection. The catalogue of holdings published periodically by Gokhran is the working documentation, supplemented by Hermitage and Kremlin Museums research. Authentication of dispersed Romanov-era pieces from outside the state collection is regularly anchored against Diamond Fund comparators.