Follow Vogue Arabia

Rare Jewels from King Farouk of Egypt’s Personal Collection To Be Auctioned

King Farouk of Egypt.

He was known to have amassed a covetable collection of jewels and fine accessories in his lifetime, and now some of HRH King Farouk‘s treasure trove could be yours. Several items from the late King of Egypt‘s extensive jewelry collection are going up for bidding at Sotheby’s London on June 6 as part of the auction house’s Fine Jewels sale.

The three lots include a diamond purse handle, estimated to attract up to £3,500 (SAR/AED 17,186), and a tie pin, cufflinks engraved with King Farouk’s profile, and a ruby and diamond tie pin, with an estimated sale of £220 to £350 (SAR/AED 1,080 to SAR/AED 1,718) for the collective items. A diamond brooch shaped in the figure of a bird, from Van Cleef & Arpels, will also go under the hammer, and is estimated to reach between £700 and £1,500 (SAR/AED 3,437 to SAR/AED 7,365).

Image courtesy of Sotheby's king-farouk-auction

Image courtesy of Sotheby’s

Also Read: Queen Nazli’s Great Granddaughter on Her Legacy of Fine Jewelry

This is not the first Van Cleef & Arpels piece from the Egyptian royal’s family to go up for auction; in 2015, Sotheby’s New York sold an iconic diamond necklace commissioned from the Paris jeweler by Queen Nazli, King Farouk’s mother. The 220-carat bib-style piece, that went for US$4.3 million (SAR/AED 15.8 million), was custom created in 1939 for Queen Nazli on the occasion of her daughter Princess Fawzia’s wedding.

King Farouk was the tenth ruler hailing from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty. He led Egypt and Sudan for 16 years, and had a well-known penchant for luxurious watches, said to have been inherited from his father, King Fouad I, who had a personal collection of timepieces created by the world’s greatest watchmakers.

A watch belonging to King Farouk was also auctioned earlier this year, setting a new record for a timepiece auctioned in the Middle East. The rare, 18-carat gold Patek Philippe watch, one of 281 designs ever created, sold for US $912,500 to an unidentified buyer at Christie’s in Dubai in March. It was designed by the prestigious Swiss watchmaker for the King in 1944, and features unique engraving on the casing of the Royal Crown of Egypt, a half moon and a star resembling Egypt’s flag at the time, and boats his initial, the letter F. It was initially estimated to be worth US $400,000 to $800,000 by the auction house.

Now Read: Driving Force: The HRH Princess Hayfa Bint Abdullah Al Saud Interview

Suggestions
Articles
View All
Vogue Collection
Topics