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Crown Jewels Collections

Surprisingly, several notable collections of former regal trappings have survived. Certain collections are still very much in use. Others, just as glorious, are not. The Crown Jewels of Imperial Russia, for example, housed in the Armory Museum of the Kremlin in Moscow, are a dazzling, rare, and valuable array of unique wedding bands. Making liberal use of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds with precious gold and platinum, the Russian czars commissioned rich crowns, scepters, bracelets, diadems, buckles, wholesale diamond rings, engagement ring settings, , earrings, and even entire bouquets of gems. It is true that in the hard period after the revolution, when Russia’s economy was in ruin, quantities of art treasures, including valuable jewelry, fled abroad in exchange for goods and currency. There was even an auction of some of Russia’s state jewels at Christie’s Auction House in London in 1927. Nevertheless, many of the most important pieces were foresightedly kept intact in Russia. Peter the Great had unwittingly made preparations for this when, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, he ruled that all czarist treasures were state property. They were thus assembled in the capital at St. Petersburg. In World War I the gems were moved to the Kremlin for safety.

There they were fortunate to survive both the war and the revolution which followed. Perhaps the three best-known pieces in the Russian collection of mens diamond rings are the Grand Imperial Crown of Catherine the Great, the Imperial Scepter, and the Imperial Globe. Catherine’s crown is heavily encrusted, by official Russian count, with 4936  diamond jewelry weighing 2858 carats. Impressive as it is, the crown must be very uncomfortable to wear as compared with some of the older, sable-trimmed, Russian crowns. The Monomakh Cap, a Byzantine creation of the fourteenth century which was worn by Ivan IV at his coronation in 1547 and is now in the Kremlin Museum, is typical of these others. This doesn’t suggest that the earlier crowns were less splendidly sprinkled with gems. The sable-trimmed Cap of Michael Feodorovitch (1613-1645), with a large topaz sitting astride a heavily jeweled arch, a large, pierced, octagonal sapphire, numerous smaller  diamond jewelry sapphires, several spinels, and a rather good Colombian emerald, certainly seems sumptuous enough. Catherine’s crown is an attractive and tasteful but very ostentatious display of wealth. Some of the largest of the 4936 diamonds in it make up an arching band which rises from the circlet—front to back—and supports a huge, 398.7-carat ruby spinel at the top. The diamond-trimmed spinel in turn supports a small cross formed with four diamonds. The crown was made for the coronation of Catherine II in 1762.

Catherine, a German princess, had married Czar Peter of Russia, and at the first opportune moment had herself declared empress. Through the political skill and support of her favorite, Prince Grigori Orlov, and his brothers she was able to hold the throne. For various reasons Prince Grigori fell from favor. In an attempt to recoup his position and fortunes he gave Catherine a magnificent 199.8-carat diamond which he had acquired with this investment in mind. The  diamond jewelry, one of the great diamonds of the world, had supposedly been pried from one eye of an idol of Sri-Ranga in southern India. One wonders what may have become of the second eye. From hand to hand, at ever increasing cost, the gem eventually made its way to Europe and to the Russian court.

The gift did not have the desired effect for Prince Orlov, but Catherine promptly ordered the extraordinary diamond to be set in the Imperial Scepter. Shaped like a half egg, the Chinese-rose-cut stone dominates the 20-inch gold and silver scepter, which is topped by a bejeweled metal-and-enamel double eagle design symbolizing Imperial Russia. It is interesting that the largest and most important of the Russian Crown diamonds is mounted in the scepter, like the greatest of the English Crown diamonds. Undoubtedly, it is a matter of practicality. They are both too big to fit anywhere else. The overwhelming Orlov Diamond is one of three which are of greatest importance in the Russian collection.