The Royal Jewellery Museum in Alexandria is now undergoing final touches ready for its reopening later this month. The restoration and modernisation process, which has taken three years to complete and cost some EGP50 million, was direly needed since the building had not been refurbished since its last restoration in the 1980s.
Meticulous restoration
All the museum’s walls, floors and roofs, as well as all the decorative elements they include were meticulously restored.
The jewellery pieces are displayed in new showcases especially crafted in Germany to show 900 pieces belonging to the family of Mohamed Ali Pasha, founder of the royal dynasty that ruled Egypt for 147 years.
The museum is now provided with central air-conditioning, library, coffee shop, and a restoration laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art devices. The museum has been provided with lecture halls, a modern alarm system, and scanning and monitoring devices.
Fakher Sobhi, general manager of technical administration of the projects sector at the Supreme Council for Antiquities, told Watani that restoration work included constructional treatment in untraditional ways. All the paintings and friezes as well as bathrooms and grounds were restored. The corridors between the museum’s pavilions were divided, the gutters replaced, and the marble paving in the grounds were treated. An automatic sprinkler system was installed and the electrical wiring was updated.
History
The museum was formerly a small but sumptuous palace built for Princess Fatma Zahraa’ Haidar Fadel, who was born in 1903. Fatma’s mother, Zeinab Fahmi, was the sister of the architect Ali Fahmi, who played a part in designing the palace along with the Italian architect Antonio Lasciac. Building began in 1919 and the palace was completed in 1923.
Princess Fatma was educated in a French-managed convent. In 1930 she married Mohamed Fayeq Yegen and had three children—Fadel, and twins Fayez and Fayza who predeceased her.
The palace was the family’s summer residence until the 1952 Revolution, when all royal possessions were sequestrated. Since there was no authority to dispose of the acquisitions, the princess was allowed to stay on at the palace. In 1964 she left her home and moved to Cairo, and the palace was turned into a presidential rest house. Princess Fatma stayed in Cairo until she died in 1983 and, in 1986 a presidential decree stipulated that her palace should be used to house the Royal Jewellery Museum.
The palace was built in the classical style on an area of 4,185sq.m. that includes the surrounding gardens. It comprises two wings linked by a gallery, on each side of which are five Italian-made stained-glass doors. The drawings were designed in 1923 by an Italian artist from Florence, and each door is a chapter of a romance with an Italian theme.
Acquisitions
The museum’s collection dates as far back as 1805, the year Mohamed Ali came to power. The members of the royal family were known for their love of luxury and precious antiquities.
The museum displays some precious vessels and utensils of the royal family, as well as a collection of coins. The most important acquisitions in the museum are an oval, diamond-inlaid snuff box that belonged to Mohamed Ali himself. There is also an azurite pen case with a model of the Qasr al-Nil Bridge fixed in the back, given to King Fouad on the occasion of the inauguration of the bridge after its expansion in June 1933. A crown inlaid with diamonds, rubies and pearls in an exquisite Indian design belonged to Princess Shwikar, King Fouad’s first wife.
Among the larger fixtures is a special three-roomed pavilion for the gifts presented to King Farouk. Of these, a golden tea-set was presented to King Farouk and his wife Farida on their wedding day by a number of Egypt’s pashas, who signed their names on the back of the salver. There is also a gold and diamond chess set, a gift from the Shah of Iran.
Other items are a collection of antiquities and jewellery belonging to Khedive Saïd Pasha, among them gold watches, Egyptian and Turkish medals inlaid with precious stones, and ancient coins. There are also several paintings in gold frames of the Khedive Ismail, his wives, and his daughters and sons.
Among other important pieces are an ivory elephant inlaid with diamonds and rubies and some desk tools belonging to King Farouk, as well as a collection of accessories belong to Queen Nariman—his second wife—and a gold and platinum crown inlaid with diamonds belonging to his first wife, Farida.
Another collection
The museum is also ready to receive another collection of Mohamed Ali’s jewellery. Forty-five boxes have been released from the safety of the Egyptian Central Bank to the Jewellery Museum. Some 26 boxes contained the Royal Dynasty’s jewellery, while four boxes contained important documents dating back to 1952. The other boxes—their contents dating back to 1976—were in a case that was stolen but were recovered following the death of the suspected thief.
The boxes were handed over to the museum and their contents surveyed, with the best chosen to be displayed in the Jewellery Museum in Alexandria and the rest in other museums.