Queen Farida’s Boucheron Diamond Necklace

Yesterday marked the 105th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Farida of Egypt, who was born on this day in 1921! Throughout her ten-year tenure as the Egyptian Queen Consort, Queen Farida frequently wore her magnificent Boucheron Diamond Necklace!

Queen Farida’s Diamond Peacock Tiara | Art Deco Floral Tiara | Diamond Earrings | Boucheron Diamond Necklace | The Jewels of Queen Farida of Egypt

Composed of 114th diamonds weighing 346 carts by the famed French Jewelry House of Boucheron, the Necklace was among the highlights of for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques in Paris in 1937,

The Boucheron Diamond Necklace was part of a suite of Jewels, which included her Diamond Peacock Tiara and a pair of Art Deco Diamond Chandelier Earrings, that was given to Safinaz Zulficar when she married King Farouk of Egypt in 1938.

King Farouk purchased the necklace through Ahmed Bei Naguib, the jeweller at the embassy in late December 1937, only a few weeks before the wedding. The cost was 2,800,000 francs or about 27,000 Egyptian pounds at the time.

16-year old Safinaz Zulficar wore the Boucheron Diamond Necklace with her Diamond Peacock Tiara and Art Deco Diamond Chandelier Earrings for her Wedding to King Farouk of Egypt in Cairo in 1938.

In the years after her wedding, Queen Farida wore the Boucheron Diamond Necklace with her Diamond Peacock Tiara and Art Deco Floral Tiara for numerous Portraits and Banquets, including for the Shah of Iran and Princess Fawzia of Egypt’s Wedding Banquet in 1939.

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone visited Egypt in the late 1930s and described meeting Queen Farida:

The little Queen, who was very sweet and gay. She was dressed in semi-evening with lots of diamonds of which she was very proud.”

Queen Farida often wore the Boucheron Diamond Necklace with both the Diamond Peacock Tiara and Art Deco Diamond Necklace Tiara for King Farouk’s Birthday Banquets in the 1940s, as well as for daytime events since the Egyptian Court was very formal.

In 1948, King Farouk divorced Queen Farida, and she returned all of her Jewels back to the King. It is likely that the Boucheron Diamond Necklace and Diamond Peacock Tiara were reset into a new Tiara and Parure when King Farouk married 17-year-old Narriman Sadek in 1951.