The Color of Paradise
Figure 3 Hexagonal emerald cased verge watch. Emerald. c.1600-1610. Museum of London, Cheapside Hoard Image source: https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/117832.html
This shiny green stone on our jewel is a hexagonal crystal of aluminum beryllium silicate spiked with chromium. Also known as: an emerald.
In the 16th century the only new source of emeralds was Colombia, then called New Granada. The gems were categorized as "old" and "oriental" (best quality) and "new" and "Peruvian" (mediocre) by their European traders, with the effect that many consumers believed they were mined in the Orient. The Portuguese were the first to bring the gems to Europe, but it wasn’t long before the English and Dutch trading companies took part in the trade. (Figure 3 shows a watch made for the Western market) The European market for the green stones was quickly saturated and, lucky enough for the traders, the search for a new market fell together with the expanding trade of Europeans with rulers in the Near East and South Asia. Among these new consumers were the Ottomans and Mughals, who gained wealth through their conquests.
The economic growth of Asia was at the core of this soon-to-be cross continental emerald trade. China had little interest in emeralds and preferred the jade from its own resources. But the high demand from Muslim consumers for emeralds made it profitable to invest in the routes that took the gems from Colombia, via Europe to the East where emeralds were exchanged for Asian commodities that were in high demand in Europe.
For the early modern beholder, the color of this gem was the color of heaven, either a fragment of the garden of Eden for the Christians, or the color of the Prophet and Paradise for Muslims. Like the diamond, the emerald was believed to have protective powers and could shield its owner against poison, snakebites and the evil eye.
The decoration so far showed that precious gems not only served as ornaments but also were believed to have protective powers and brought with them a hint of the divine. (Would you like to learn more about the decoration? Click here to explore two more aspects: rubies and enameling.)
Now, let’s zoom out and look at the overall shape.