Persian Treasures - The Kiani Crown

Kiani Crown

The Kiani Crown was used during the Qajar dynasty. Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, had his own crown designed but the Kiani crown was present during his coronation. The crown itself is made of red velvet which has thousands of gems set onto it. Fathali Shah is often shown in paintings wearing a similar crown - it is not known whether there were a number of crowns in use at the time which looked similar, or whether the artists simply portrayed the same crown in different ways. The Kiani crown has about 1800 pearls sown onto it, each from 7 to 9 mm. in diameter. There are approximately 300 emeralds set on the crown, the largest of which is about 80 cts. There are also about 1800 rubies and spinels on the crown, the largest of which is 120 cts. The largest diamond is 23 cts. The total height of the crown is 32 cm. without the aigrette, and the total width is 19.5 cm.