This crown in the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin looks almost excessive: gold, intricate carving, enamel, a scattering of gemstones, and a heavy sable trim at the bottom. The cap was made in 1627 in the Kremlin workshop under the guidance of the chief clerk Yefim Telepnev for Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the first of the Romanovs.

The occasion was the final consolidation of the Astrakhan Khanate under Moscow: the annexation began back in the time of Ivan the Terrible in 1556 and was completed during Mikhail's reign.

The model was the cap of Monomakh, but the decoration of the Astrakhan crown is Renaissance, Western European, not for nothing was it referred to in old descriptions as the "Friesian cap," meaning made in the Western style. The structure is two-tiered. Along the hemispherical crown are cut-out figurative appliqués, "towns" with enamel and stones: sapphires, emeralds, rubies, pearls, set on a light symmetrical embossed pattern. At the top is a small crown of three converging arches, embraced at the base by a band-crown; green, blue, and white enamels alternate with stones. Completing it all is a large emerald, the very green drop at the peak.

In total, the cap has about 177 stones and pearls, and it weighs approximately one and a half kilograms without the fur.
The paradox is that this ceremonial splendor effectively remained a museum exhibit even during the owner's lifetime: the crown was part of the Tsar's "Great Attire" as his main decoration, but in the actual coronation ceremony, it was not used, that role was preserved for the cap of Monomakh. Since 1703, when Peter I organized a permanent collection of the Armory Chamber, the cap has been part of it.

The crown owes its second life to heraldry: its image became part of the coat of arms of Astrakhan and the Astrakhan region, a symbol that has outlived both the attire and the dynasty.