HONG KONG CITY: Rare Mughal era eyeglasses to be auctioned by Sotheby’s

HONG
KONG CITY: A pair of rare diamond and
emerald spectacles from an unknown Indian princely treasury will be sold at an
auction in London later this month.

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

The spectacles
will be offered at auction for £1.5m-2.5m ($2m-$3.4m) each, the auction house
said.

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

“These
extraordinary curiosities bring together myriad threads – from the technical
mastery of the cutter and the genius of craftsmanship to the vision of a patron
who chose to fashion two pairs of eyeglasses quite unlike anything ever seen
before,” Edward Gibbs, chairman of Sotheby’s for Middle East and India, said.

It is
unclear who commissioned these spectacles, but they possibly belong to Mughals,
the dynasty that ruled the subcontinent in the 16th and 17th centuries and was
known for rich artistic and architectural achievements.

A
statement by Sotheby’s said that a diamond and an emerald were shaped into the
two spectacles.

“The
quality and purity of the gemstones is extraordinary and stones of this size
would no doubt have been the reserve of an emperor,” it added.

The
diamond lenses – cleaved as a pair from a single natural diamond – are thought
to be from the mines of Golconda in southern India. The teardrop-shaped
emeralds originate from a single natural Colombian emerald.

“While
ordinary lenses merely function to improve sight, these filters were aids for
spiritual enlightenment – with diamonds thought to illuminate and emeralds
believed to have held miraculous powers to heal and to ward off evil,”
Sotheby’s said.

According
to the auction house, the “most famous evocation” of such glasses in
history and mythology can be found in Pliny the Elder’s “Natural
History”, which recounts the ancient Roman Emperor Nero observing
gladiatorial contests through the surface of a precious green stone.

Nero’s
tutor, Seneca, was an expert in light refraction, mirrors, and optics, and
those were thought to be one of the first-ever spectacles, the statement said.