Housed in the former palace of Princess Fatima El Zahra, the Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria is a window into a vanished world that recalls Egypt’s Belle Époque past. Begun in 1919 and completed 1923, the grand building is the perfect example of a 1920’s version of the 18th Century.

The palace is located in Zizinia, a part of the city named after a Greek clan and one of Alexandria’s richest families, who owned much of the land in the area. Zizinia’s location above the nearby Mediterranean offered refreshing sea breezes and soon opulent villas sprang up in the middle of lush gardens filled with roses, exotic plants, and trickling fountains.

Although many of the palace’s original furnishings have been dispersed over time, much remains to delight the eye. Visitor’s can walk through rooms decked out in rich parquet flooring made from exotic woods, sinuous moldings, and dripping crystal chandeliers all imported from France. While Italian and French artisans created frescoes on the ceilings recalling epic tales from Greek mythology, as well as over ripe cupids that gaze down on passers by.

More intriguing perhaps are the portraits lining the walls of princes and princesses decked out in the latest fashions of the last two centuries, and all sporting opulent jewelry. Even better are examples of the real thing glittering in nearby vitrines that exemplify the splendor of Mohammed Ali’s Egyptian court.

Intoxicated by its rise to power and wealth at the turn of the 20th century, the Egyptian royal family endowed its court with exceptional glamour and soon became the most brilliant in the Middle East. By 1922 the Ottoman court, which had long snubbed Egypt’s ruling dynasty, had ceased to exist. Saudi Arabia’s court wasn’t yet deluged by the riches of the oil boom and the courts of Jordan and Iraq were minor by comparison. As for the court of Iran, when King Farouk’s sister Princess Fawzia arrived there to wed the future shah, she soon yearned for the regal life she enjoyed in Egypt.

In Cairo, court life was a series of banquets and balls in palaces that stretched for miles, attended by ladies dressed in the latest Paris haute couture, and tended to by thousands of servants in glittering livery. When the heat of the Cairo summer grew intolerable, court, government, and diplomatic corps fled to Alexandria.

There, the summer was a whirlwind of social events and every night was an occasion. At dinners for two hundred, guests sat down to place settings made entirely of gold. Princesses covered in jewels strolled along garden paths beneath palms illuminated by the moon, only to be eclipsed now and then by bursts of fireworks. The festivities only died down in the autumn when everyone returned to Cairo. But Princess Fatima El Zahra remained; the sole member of the royal family to make her permanent home in Alexandria.

When the monarchy was deposed in 1952, most of the royal family’s property was confiscated, including Princess Fatima’s palace.

But mysteriously very few of the jewels confiscated ended up in the state treasury, and the whereabouts of the crown jewels are still unknown today. What did remain were some exquisite minor pieces that hardly represent the accumulated treasures of the dynasty that ruled Egypt for over 170 years. Thus what went into the national treasury were works of art rather than “riches”, and much of that jewelry is on display at the museum today. Even if some of the pieces had “lost” their largest stones, they still represent the kind of craftsmanship found at some of the world’s most famous jewelers.

Although the museum reemerged in May 2006 from an extensive two year renovation, an air of mystery still surrounds many of the pieces housed within its collection.  The curators have either misplaced the original jewelers’ cases or haven’t managed to decipher the craftsmen’s marks, which has resulted in the use of inventive wording on some of the labels. Thus a “Gold Box” to identify a Fabergé cigarette case or “Pair of Earrings” for an admirable example of Cartier or Van Clef and Arpels’ virtuosity.

Visitors can decide for themselves whether a jasper dish was a gift from the last czar of Russia to the Khedive; if a snuff box studded with diamonds was a present from King Christian IX of Denmark; or whether a box made of nephrite carried a miniature of the Kaiser on it’s lid before it was replaced with the face of Queen Farida.

The impression of being on a treasure hunt, as one inspects such marvels, is part of the allure of visiting this hidden museum. Even though the whereabouts of many of the royal family’s jewels are still a mystery today, the few that have survived still poignantly recall the vanished splendor of Egypt’s royal dynasty.


Image Caption:
Clockwise from Left: A late 19th Century portrait of Princess Djemila Ismail displayed at the museum; The most stunning piece in the collection is a platinum tiara with matching earrings, set with 2,159 diamonds and flawless white pearls. It was originally commissioned from a Paris jeweler for Princess Shwikar, wife of King Fouad, and was later passed down to Queen Farida, King Farouk’s first wife; The coat of arms belonging to Egypt’s Royal family is frequently seen throughout the palace; An enamel and diamond snuff box inscribed with Mouhammed Ali’s name; King Farouk and Queen Farida on their wedding day in 1939. She wore a dress made by the house of Worth in Paris, while he wedding veil had been embroidered by Lesage;  To get a sense of the Royal family’s vast wealth in jewels and what had been pilfered from the state treasury, one only need observe the pieces of “dubious provenance” that occasionally surface at International auction houses. A few years ago Sotheby’s auctioned off a stunning necklace of three dimensional life-size voluptuous roses. Covered entirely in pavé diamonds, it was commissioned by Queen Nazli in 1938; A detail of one of the numerous frescoes found throughout the palace; King Farouk’s glamorous sister Princess Fawzia was dubbed one of the most beautiful women in the world and was photographed by Cecil Beaton.

©The Polyglot

To read more blogs about fashion and culture, with regular mentions on the Middle East, go to the Polyglot at http://the-polyglot.blogspot.com