The Imperial Crown of Russia, 1938 (colour litho)

Made by the Swiss jeweller, Jérémie Pauzié, for the coronation of Catherine the Great in 1762; it is made of silver with a large uncut polished ruby at the top, 75 pearls on the edge of the 'mitre', and 4936 diamonds; used in all 6 subsequent Romanov coronations and last used in 1896 for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1917); the crown, following the tradition of Byzantine emperors, was placed by the Tsar of Russia on his own head and the mitre shape with two spheres shows that Russia regarded itself as the heir of Byzantium, the two spheres representing the eastern and western Roman empires; now on display in Moscow at the Kremlin; from a series of illustrations of famous royal crowns published by the cigarette manufacturer, Godfrey Phillips, to coincide with the public interest in royalty and regalia after the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937;