Queen Farida’s Lotus Tiara And Wedding Jewellery

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2012, and has been updated in 2024 with newly-uncovered information I found about the designer of Queen Farida’s tiara as well as the fate of the rest of her wedding jewellery.

In 1938, King Farouk married Safinaz Zulficar, after changing her name to Farida. As a child, Safinaz had been to the royal palaces many times because of her mother’s friendship with Queen Nazli. But on January 20th, at the mere age of 17, the daughter of Alexandria arrived in her Worth Paris gown at Kubbeh Palace as Queen Farida. Major celebrations were in order, street parades, fireworks, fabulous balls, and gifts and food handed to the poor of the cities and provinces. The grandeur and scale of the celebrations were unmatched, even by the legendary Afrah El Angal (offspring’s weddings) which Farouk’s grandfather, Khedive Ismail, threw for the marriages of his children almost 70 years earlier.

Prior to the wedding, a law was passed granting Nazli the title of Queen Mother. But the title wasn’t the only thing that Queen Nazli would keep. King Farouk issued a decree giving her the same precedence in protocol as Queen Farida. The Egyptian court followed a strict protocol which having two queens made all the more challenging. Queen Nazli also kept all of her jewellery. Queen Farida was not only the youngest queen of her time, she was also Egypt’s first modern consort to undertake a public role. And so, the new queen was surely in need of some major BLING!

In the Egyptian tradition, the groom doesn’t just give the bride an engagement ring, but an engagement set or parure called “Shabka”. Although more and more couples in Egypt opted for the Western diamond ring, gold is making a comeback with its ever-rising prices. Upon the engagement, King Farouk gave Safinaz a ring set with a diamond that King Fuad had given Queen Nazli.

Safinaz Zulficar official engagement photograph. She is seen in a 3/4 sleeve dress and her diamond engagement ring given to her by King Farouk

But the king’s “gift” to Farida wasn’t exactly a parure, and the pieces she wore on her wedding day(s) weren’t the only pieces she received. When I say receive, I don’t exactly mean own. I’ll explain why later on. But first, let’s talk about the fabulous jewels!

Queen Farida’s Boucheron necklace

The King gifted his queen an amazing Boucheron necklace. The masterpiece was created for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques (International Exposition of Art and Technology) in 1937. The necklace was one of the most admirable pieces there. It was composed of 114 diamonds and weighed 346 carats.

Queen Farida’s lotus tiara

Queen Farida also received a gift from Queen Nazli, the Queen Mother, a tiara with Lotus floral motifs. This tiara is often referred to as the “peacock tiara,” but I believe if you look closely, you can see that it’s actually comprised of floral and vegetation motifs, inspired by the countryside in Egypt. The tiara was made for the occasion, and not part of Queen Nazli’s collection.

We don’t have any coloured photos of the tiara but newspapers at the time of the wedding mentioned that it is made of diamonds with a rare emerald in the centre. Looking at the only clear picture we have, we can see clearly that there are no emeralds. Queen Farida owned a large emerald which was worn both as a pendant and a headpiece with the tiara.

Queen Farida in her wedding jewels in 1938

Queen Farida at the opera, wearing the lotus tiara with the emerald pendant. Under her yeshmak, we can spot the Boucheron necklace.

At the top of the tiara, there’s a heart-shaped diamond, which I estimate to be around 4 carats. The tiara was estimated to be worth more than 7000 pounds. The queen wore the tiara many times after the wedding. Here is an example from 1945.

Queen Farida in an official photograph, shortly after the wedding. Her Majesty was wearing her wedding jewellery with a robe trimmed with fur and inscribed in Arabic, made by Maison Worth as part of trousseau.

Who made Queen Farida’s tiara?

I’ve looked for the maker of this tiara for years. I had lost hope after all the major jewellers denied ever making this tiara, until one day the maker revealed himself to be Adolphe Kramer. A.D Kramer, as he referred to himself, was the court jeweller to King Farouk and his father Leon was the court jeweller to King Fuad. The Kramer family were jewellers, watchmakers and dealers. L Kramer & Co was established in Cairo in the late 1800s and became a purveyor to the Khedival Family.

Leon Kramer & Co. premises in Cairo in 1901

His son, Adolphe, was born in Cairo in 1893 and studied commerce at the University of Stuttgart. He also became the court jeweller for King Farouk and lived in Zamalek until he moved to the United States in 1945. He lived in New York and worked in the real estate and restaurant industries. He wrote an article once where he talked about the crown he made for Queen Farida’s wedding, he described it as an “allegory of ancient and modern Egypt.” This leads me to believe that these are definitely lotus flowers, not peacocks.

1954 article by AD Kramer, found in the Des Moines Times

Kramer, however, mentioned that the tiara was made of diamonds and emeralds. He may be referring to the emerald pendant the Queen sometimes wore with the tiara, or the tiara really contained emeralds and we can’t tell from the images. I couldn’t find more information on the items he and his family made of the royal family, and I wonder if he also made Queen Farida’s white and yellow diamond flower tiara.

Queen Farida’s wedding earrings

On her wedding day, Farida also wore diamond chandelier earrings, but their origins are unknown. Cartier was requested to send over jewellery for the new queen to choose from. Perhaps this pair was her selection.

As the first Queen Consort of Egypt to undertake public duties, Queen Farida’s popularity grew larger day after day. But behind the palace gates, drama was brewing between her, her mother-in-law, and her husband. Farida gave birth to three daughters, and by 1945, she and Farouk separated for the last time.

Queen Farida wearing the Boucheron necklace with a convertible necklace tiara

A royal divorce and a jewellery dispute

After years of Queen Farida quitting public life and demanding a divorce, the royal couple finally divorced in 1948. This caused much anger all over Egypt. Farida was very popular, and she was the link between the public and their sovereign. People went on protests with slogans of how Farida was too good and pure to be Farouk’s wife!

In his book “The Fall of a Regime, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal tells a story of the Queen’s divorce as recounted by Princess Samiha Hussein to the British Embassy. After she was notified that the king had finally decided to grant her divorce, Farida was told that the king ordered her to return all the jewellery he had given to her at the time of the marriage and during her years of marriage, even those gifts. The queen agreed to return her wedding tiara immediately and acknowledged that the tiara was missing a diamond and that she was willing to cover the cost of replacing it. The queen, however, refused to return gifts she received during her marriage. There was no mention of the necklace in Heikal’s book but based on the article, we can assume it was the same case as the tiara.