It’s hexagonal. It weighs a whopping 167.09 carats. And the front is
carved in low relief with a flowering plant design. The other side…
which is not shown… has a flowerhead motif. The sides are decorated
with foliage. It’s value–about 15 years ago-- was roughly $200,000.
Today… who knows?
There was only a small number of these large carved emeralds–to the
best knowledge available at the time–to have been made under the
patronage of the Mughal Emperors in India at the height of their
power an importance. The outline of this stone derives from the six
sided emerald crystal from which it was originally carved.
This stone is distinguished… not only for it’s size… but also
for its even green hue. It has less flaws and inclusions than are
normally seen in larger emeralds.
As for the stylized floral designs… well… they are typically
Mughal. It is thought that this type of carving was introduced by the
Emperor Jahangir after having visited Kashmir in 1620.
There are times when I have a great more I could add but I hold back
in order to keep Tidbits short and sweet. I’m not crazy about heavy-
handed pedantics. Then there are times–like today–when I simply
have nothing more to say. This is due to an arcane attraction to
ignorance which resides deep within my warped soul. That–of
course–plus the fact that the stupid periodical from which I gleaned
this article was amazingly sparse. You can call consider this last
paragraph as filler.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Current Tidbits… and then click on it in order to view a carved
emerald that was created during the Mughal dynasties.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark