CROWN OF THE ANDES

naturalia
The Crown of the Andes, Popayán, Colombia, 17th–18th centuries (courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
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Kris Lane

Following the 1530s conquest expeditions of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada of ‘the New Kingdom of Granada’ the Old World learned of the finest, largest and greenest emerald crystals ever seen. Conquistadors sent sample stones from the preHispanic mines of Somondoco (today Chivor) to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and successors sent prime stones from Muzo (discovered in the 1560s) to his son and heir, King Philip II. Royal severance taxes were immediately collected in Santa Fe de Bogotá along with fifths of gold, after which traders and lapidaries moved their shiny product to market, near and far. Some emeralds were smuggled out of the continent and others were absorbed into locally fashioned votive objects such as the astonishing Crown of the Andes.

Further reading
  • Bycroft, M., and S. Dupré (eds.) (2019) Gems in the Early Modern World: Materials, Knowledge & Global Trade, 1450–1800 (London: Palgrave).
  • Domínguez, R. (1965) Historia de las esmeraldas de Colombia (Bogotá: Gráficos Ducal).
  • Forsythe, H. (2003) The Cheapside Hoard (London: Museum of London).
  • Giuliani, G., M. Chaussidon, H.-J. Schubnel, D.H. Piat, C. Rollion-Bard, C. France-Lanord, D. Giard, D. de Narvaez, and B. Rondeau (2000) ‘Oxygen isotopes and emerald trade routes since antiquity’, Science, vol. 287, 631–3.
  • Jaffer, A. (2017) Treasures of the Mughals and the Maharajas: The al-Thani Collection (Milan: Skira).
  • Keene, M. (2001) Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals (London: Thames & Hudson).
  • Lane, K. (2010) Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires (New Haven/ London: Yale University Press).
  • Meen, V.B., and A. D. Tushingham (1968) Crown Jewels of Iran (Toronto: University of Toronto Press).
  • Otero Muñoz, G., and A.M. Barriga Villalba (1948) Esmeraldas de Colombia (Bogotá: Banco de la República).
  • Peretti, A., and T. Falise (2017) Magnificent Green: On the Trail of the Legendary Colombian Emerald (Hong Kong: Gem Research Swisslab).
  • Schmetzer, K., G. Martayan, J. Guillermo Ortiz, and A.R. Blake (2018) ‘Rediscovery and history of the Chivor emerald mines: between legends and reality (1880–1970)’, InColor Special: Emerald, vol. 40, 58–63.
  • Sinkankis, J. (1981) Emerald and Other Beryls (Radnor, PA: Chilton Book Co.).