Spinel of the Great Imperial Crown

Prince Alexander Menshikov, in his letter from Kiev dated May 12, 1705, gave instructions to buy the stone from Istopnikov, reimbursing him for the money spent and giving him a bonus of 1,000 rubles.

After the crown made for the coronation was brought to Moscow, the original top in the form of a golden monde studded with diamonds was replaced with a large red stone.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Bergholz wrote in his diary that on March 30, 1724, the imperial crown was shown to him and several others by secret cabinet secretary Alexei Makarov, and at that time there was already “a very expensive and incredibly large ruby, almost a finger's length” on the top.

Boris Kurakin later wrote about Menshikov: “And he had a particularly famous thing - a red yakhont, of great value, which, due to its size, weight and color, was considered unique in Europe”.

On September 11, Pyotr Moshkov announced the “large red lal stone” at a meeting of the Supreme Privy Council and handed it over to Vice-Chancellor Baron Andrei Osterman “for delivery to His Imperial Majesty”.

In January 1742, when the crown was being transported from Moscow to St. Petersburg, a detailed description of it was made, and at that time, under the cross there was a large, but relatively cheap stone, valued at only a thousand rubles.

[14] Worth 60 thousand rubles, the lal appears again in the Great Crown of Elizabeth Petrovna, made for her coronation in St. Petersburg in 1742.

[12] For the coronation ceremony of Catherine II in 1762, it was necessary to make the great imperial crown and orb again (the scepter was traditionally taken from the Workshop and Armory Chamber).

It is a common misconception that the Spinel of the Great Imperial Crown is the stone that Nikolai Spathari bought in Beijing during his embassy to the Qing Empire.

Back in 1807, Alexei Malinovsky [ru], who mistakenly believed that this crown was made for the coronation of Catherine I and was subsequently used at the coronations of Peter II and Anna Ioannovna, wrote about it: According to the expense books of the Chamber Archive, the crown of Empress Catherine I contained a greatest size and excellent quality lal, which was taken into the cabinet by order of Empress Anna Ioannovna.

This lal is the same one that was bought in 1676 for a very significant sum at that time, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in Beijing by Nikolai Spathari, the Russian ambassador to the Chinese Bogda Khan Kangxi.

[16] Various publications in pre-revolutionary Russia linked this statement with the stone that has been under the cross of Anna Ioannovna's crown since 1732; this version was generally accepted.

[33] Already in the 19th century, the definition “spinel ruby” was found in inventories,[15] but only the examination of Academician Fersman reliably established that the largest of the seven historical stones of the Diamond Fund is indeed a spinel[2] The Menshikov Ruby is mentioned in the historical novels The Hunt of Peter II by Yuri Vigor and The Dishonored Bride by Margarita Anisimkova [ru], as well as in the short story The Menshikov Passion by Mikhail Kheifets, and plays an important role in the plot of the novel The Fourth Ruby from the children's fantasy series Section 13 by the American writer James R. Hannibal.