Marjorie Merriweather Post holding the Empress Crown of the former Empress of Iran, Farah Pahlavi. The magnificent piece was made in 1966 by Van Cleef & Arpels for the coronation of the Empress the next year, the first wife of a Persian monarch ever to be crowned. Selected out of 50 proposals from the greatest jewelers of the time, the 4.3-pound crown was adorned with jewels handpicked by Pierre Arpels himself from the National Treasury of Iran: a total of 1,541 stones, including 1,469 diamonds, 36 emeralds, 34 rubies, 2 spinels, 105 pearls among many other stones, and a 150-carat carved emerald at its center.