The Mogul and the Bangle
The great Mogul sits upon his throne. He ponders many things…not
the least of which is his vision. He is a descendant of the first
Great Mogul Baber who was himself a descendent of Timur the Tartar. He
gazes upon his empire with a clarity in his eyes that belies his age.
He absently fondles one of the two bangles he is wearing on each
arm…above each elbow. They are set with emeralds…that magical
stone which has the power to prevent eye disease. These emeralds have
an extraordinary richness of color…a fact the great Mogul knows is
directly responsible for his keenness of vision which is not matched
even by the mighty eagle as he soars the vast skies looking for a
kill. They are the same…the eagle and the Mogul…each great
warriors of their domains.
In India…from the beginning…emeralds have been the most treasured
of all From the days of the Moguls they have been fashioned
into every possible shape and worn in every possible manner as
jewelry. Emeralds–in fact–date back to ancient Egypt and Pharaonic
times. Indian sources of emeralds were–as were the Egyptian
sources–of poor quality. It was not until the time of the
Conquistadores that the great mines of Muzo and Chivor in Colombia
were opened…that fine quality emeralds were produced.
Interesting…don’t you think folks…that it is the Conquistadores
and the Moguls that are connected with the earliest emeralds? Makes
you think that maybe it’s a warrior’s gemstone. Something maybe the
Conquistadores and the Moguls didn’t want getting out. Psst. Don’t
tell no body it’s the emeralds that give me my strength. Long hair for
muscle was out of vogue by then you see–Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr
aside. Hey! Honey! Where’s my shield and my horse and my faithful
steed? And my emeralds? Where are my gol’ durn emeralds. By
golly…I’m not going off to battle without my emeralds.
It was–folks–in the first half of this century that the Princes of
modern India…perhaps themselves direct descendants of the
descendants of Baber and of Timur the Tartar…that began to have
their emeralds re-cut and re-set by the leading jewelers of Paris and
London and New York. So strong in fact was the Indian influence on the
emerald market…that the jewel merchants were able to force European
dealers–not the least of which was the House of Cartier and Van Cleef
and Arpels–to purchase quantities of smaller carved emeralds if they
wanted access to the more important gems that would appear on the
market.
An so we now come to our emerald bangles. At first glance…they look
like rings. But rings they ain’t my friends. They are bracelets set
with large emeralds of exceptional richness of color. They are Indian.
They are worth-- I think–somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 million
dollars. So there it is…everything you ever wanted to know and
more…about emeralds. Actually… there is a previous Tidbit that
speaks more of the magical properties of the stone…in case anyone
cares to delve into the fathomless archives of the Tidbits pages.
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 table menu till you get to the box that says
Tidbits…and inside the box where it says Tidbit Graphics…click on
the link that says: Emeralds…where you will see a graphic of our
bangles.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all next
week. Benjamin Mark
TYLER-ADAM CORP.–Jewelry Manufacturers
Tel: 1-800-20-TYLER
E-Mail to: webmaster@tyler-adam.com