Talk:Iranian Crown Jewels

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Are the Iranian Crown Jewels "by far the most dazzling, largest, and valuable" collections in the world? It's possible, but this claim sounds like a personal point of view. Years ago, when I was a student with the Gemological Institute of America, all of the literature I encountered that addressed the subject of royal crown jewels seemed to point to the imperial jewels of the Czars of Russia as the most fabulous collection. Remember, they had Peter Karl Faberge as one of their jewelers, and it could be argued that he was the greatest jeweler in the history of the world. Magnificence lies not only in number and size of the diamonds and gems, but also in the perfection of cutting, the quality of the stones, the superbness of the design and excellence of craftsmanship in creating a piece. That is why I would argue a single Faberge Egg with a relatively small amount of gems in it might be more valuable than a crown with a thousand diamonds ... yes, even a thousand carats of diamonds in it.A couple of other fantastic collections, such as the British Crown jewels, or the Royal Thai Crown jewels may also equal or surpass the Iranian collection: we will never know the extent of those collections because that information is secret. The British collection includes the Cullinan I diamond - the largest white diamond in the world - at over 600 carats, all the other Cullinans, the Koh-I-Noor and dozens of huge and historic diamonds.The Imperial State Crown of the United Kingdom is unquestionably the most magificent crown in the world, containing the enormous Cullinan II diamond, the Black Prince's Ruby, and other priceless and historic gems. The King of Thailand owns the largest cut diamond in the world, the astonishing Golden Jubilee Diamond. Besides being a major source for rubies and sapphires, the Thai Royal family receives as gifts multitudes of jeweled objects we can only guess. When I was in Bangkok last year - it was the King's 60th anniversary of ascending the throne, I saw on display scale replicas of the royal barges executed in pure gold and encrusted with tens of thousands of diamonds mostly, also rubies, sapphires and emeralds that were to be given to the King and Queen from the Thai jewelry industry, one of the largest in the world. That the Iranian collection is wonderful I do not doubt for a second, but we probably will never know which collection is the most dazzling.Buddmar 09:33, 24 January 2007 (UTC)buddmar

Has the GIA personally survey the Iranian Jewels? I mean, the Russian one is famous, but not the Iranian one. Therefore it might be overlooked. But I do find that the Russian & Iranian jewels to be dazzling. There is one huge globe studded with diamonds (in the Iranian) & the Tsar's tiaras & crowns are simply fantastic! Rad vsovereign 16:49, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

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[edit] Answer

I read many books about this subject. They all confirm that Iranian Crown Jewels are the largest collection of it's kind in the world. About the most dazzling, I don't know. The most valuable: it's impossible to tell, all these jewels cannot be priced as they are far more precious than just money. They are history and have many legends behind them (such as Peacock Throne) --Arad 18:23, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] pictures

The pictures are ell at the bottom of the page!!! We shold add more text so the number of pictures would be in proportion to the text.Manu kian maheri 07:09, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cite Your Sources!

Arad, you state that you "read many books on the subject that claim this is the largest collection of jewels in the world." Please, then cite your sources. I've done a little research and I doubt the claim; I believe the article is personal opinion. The royal crown jewels of Iran is an astonishingly magnificent collection - I am not attempting to diminish that fact; nor am I trying to put down your otherwise good article and lovely photos. But as a Gemologist, a graduate of the Gemological Institute of America, a student of Jewelry History who studied the subject at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Smithsonian in Washington and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, I feel you were getting carried away with the superlatives. The truth and accuracy of the article when I edited the first line to state "one of the most" instead of "by far the most" dazzling, valuable, etc. I base the fact the collection cannot be considered "the most valuable, etc" on the following facts: 1.) Wikipedia lists 46 of the largest/most famous diamonds in the world, the Gemological Institute of American has a list of 100, in both cases only one stone from the Iranian collection rates these lists; 2.) The three or four most fabulous crowns in the world are either in the British or Russian royal collections ... one cannot deny the Imperial State Crown of the United Kingdom is the greatest crown in human history with the 2,868 diamonds equalling 1,000 carats including the Cullinan II diamond at 317.4 carats, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and five rubies. You mention the antique and distinguished historical value of jewels ... keep in mind this crown has elements belonging to King Edward The Confessor (c.1004 CE - 1066 CE), the "Black Prince's Ruby" Spinel going back the Edward of Woodstock (1367) and The Stuart Sapphire. This is a 1,000 year old heirloom that transends monetary value. 3.) The finest sceptres in the world contain the two largest diamonds in the world: The Royal Thai Sceptre contains the largest diamond in the world - "The Golden Jubilee" which weighs 545 carats and is the only diamond in the world that particular color of orangey golden brownish color; and of course the British Imperial sceptre with The Great Star of Africa diamond, the second largest in the world. 4.) To the best of my knowledge there are no pieces in the Iranian collection by the greatest jeweler of them all: Peter Karl Faberge; nor anything from the houses of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpel, Tiffany, Count Fulco di Verdura, the Royal House of Asscher, etc. I mention this because masterpieces of jewelry are created by masters ... an art museum may claim to have a million pieces of art work, but how wonderful is the collection if there is nothing by Rembrandt, Rubens, DaVinci, Cezanne, Picasso, Kahlo, Eakins, Noguchi? 5.) The greatest treasures in gold include pieces from the Tomb of King Tutankhamun, the Golden Buddha in Bangkok (largest single pure gold statue in world weighing many tons), Fort Knox, and the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. I can go on and on, but I think I articulated my message, and I thank you for hearing me out. Buddmar 17:31, 17 May 2007 (UTC)buddmar

  • I am not the one who wrote this article. I cannot prove that this is the most precious (I stated that before and it's impossible to tell). But I can say it the largest considering the amount of gems, gold etc in the collection. They may be all cheap ones, but they are a lot! I haven't edited the text since it was written, I just cleaned up the images. So don't target me as the author. Hope I answered your questions concerning me. --Arad 17:49, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] On the quotation placed at the top of the entry

I personally utterly dislike making disparaging remarks (apparently taken from an article, with no named author, from the website of a commercial company, selling "chic" items and the like) about the Crown Jewels of another nation. This is an entry on the Crown Jewels of Iran and not on the Crown Jewels of another nation, in this case of the United Kingdom. It shows only bad taste to head an encyclopaedic entry with the present rather puerile remarks! I believe that someone who is dedicated to this entry should take an effective action and clean the entry from this and similar rather distasteful contents — I have not attempted to do so, as carrying out this task properly requires some careful examination of the history of this entry; one should be mindful that appropriate additions by other contributors are not inadvertently thrown out by resetting the entry to its version of a relatively early date. --BF 09:21, 13 March 2008 (UTC)