Rare glasses from the Mughal era will be auctioned by Sotheby’s

A pair of rare diamond and emerald glasses from an unknown Indian princely treasure will be sold at an auction in London later this month.

The glasses were placed in Mughal-era frames around 1890, according to auction house Sotheby’s.

The shows will be auctioned for £ 1.5-2.5million ($ 2-3.4million) each, the auction house said.

Before the sale, they will be exhibited for the first time in October in Hong Kong and London.

“These extraordinary curiosities bring together a myriad of threads – from the technical mastery of the cutter and the genius of the craft to the vision of a patron who chose to fashion two pairs of glasses quite unlike anything that has been seen. previously, “Edward Gibbs, President of Sotheby’s for Middle East and India, said.

It is not known who commissioned these shows, but they may belong to the Mughals, the dynasty that ruled the subcontinent in the 16th and 17th centuries and was known for its rich artistic and architectural achievements.

A statement from Sotheby’s said that a diamond and an emerald had been fashioned into the two bezels.

“The quality and purity of precious stones is extraordinary and stones of this size would undoubtedly have been an emperor’s reserve,” he added.

The diamond glasses – cleaved in pairs from a single natural diamond – are believed to have come from the Golconda mines in southern India. Teardrop emeralds come from a single natural Colombian emerald.

“While regular lenses only work to improve eyesight, these filters were aids in spiritual enlightenment – with diamonds believed to illuminate and emeralds believed to have miraculous powers to heal and ward off evil,” Sotheby’s said.

According to the auction house, “the most famous evocation” of these glasses in history and mythology can be found in Pliny the Elder’s “Natural History”, which tells of the ancient Roman emperor Nero observing gladiatorial fights across the surface of a precious green stone.

Nero’s tutor, Seneca, was an expert in light refraction, mirrors and optics, and these were considered one of the very first shows, the statement said.