The ultimate status symbol, the magnificent artifacts combine science, beauty and faith: the diamond pair called Halo of Light and the emerald pair called Gate of Paradise will be offered at auction for the first time, with estimates of £1,5 – 2,5 million each, having remained in the same collection for almost half a century.
These extraordinary curiosities bring together a myriad of threads: from the technical mastery of the cutter and the genius of the craftsmanship to the vision of a patron who has chosen to make two pairs of glasses quite different from anything ever seen before.
The history of the plays begins in XNUMXth-century Mughal India, at a time when imperial wealth, scientific knowledge, and artistic endeavor simultaneously reached their zenith. Commissioned by an unknown prince, an artist has fashioned a diamond, weighing over two hundred carats, and a brilliant emerald, weighing at least three hundred carats, into two masterpieces. A testament to the technical skill involved, no comparable example of either is known to exist. In about 1890, the lenses were inserted into new frames, decorated with rose-cut diamonds.
The original patron for whom these remarkable displays were commissioned remains unknown, but they stem from a rich period of artistic and architectural achievement during the Great Mughal reigns of Emperors Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627), Shah Jahan ( 1627 -1658) and Aurangzeb (1658-1707).
The quality and clarity of the gems is in itself extraordinary and stones of this size would undoubtedly have been an emperor's reserve. The diamonds are flawless, thought to come from the Golconda mines in South India. Cut in pairs from a single natural diamond – perhaps the largest ever found – together they now weigh twenty-five carats. The bezeling around the edge displays extreme skill, arranged to maintain transparency in the lenses while releasing light from the edges. The teardrop shaped emeralds are also from a single natural Colombian emerald and now weigh twenty seven carats. The bezel of the emeralds has been precisely angled to maintain the intensity of the color in the stone.
While ordinary lenses simply work to improve vision, these filters were aids in spiritual enlightenment – with diamonds thought to illuminate and emeralds believed to possess miraculous powers to heal and ward off evil. The most famous evocation of such glass in history and mythology is found in Pliny the Elder's 'Natural History', a tome that survived the Roman Empire, which recounts the ancient emperor Nero watching gladiatorial contests across the surface of a precious green stone. Nero's tutor Seneca was an expert in the refraction of light, mirrors and optics, and these are thought to be one of the earliest spectacles ever. Many centuries later, an inventory of the treasure of Charles V of France lists a case of beryls (a family of gemstones including emerald and aquamarine) framed as eyeglasses.
Closer to where these examples originate, in India, following the tragic death of Shah Jahan's beloved wife – in whose honor the Taj Mahal was painstakingly built – the emperor is said to have cried so many tears he had need to cure his sick eyes with the emerald stones.
