Taxed or deemed contraband, New Granada’s emeralds were always stowed among better known commodities such as gold or pearls, sometimes sewn into a priest’s robe or a merchant’s frock coat for security. In Cartagena, emeralds pooled among New Christian and other global traders, who sent them on to wholesale gem markets in Seville, Lisbon and eventually Amsterdam and London. We know about them thanks to a mix of Inquisition and notary records. Some raw emeralds found their way into European curiosity cabinets. Gemstones are not like other commodities, and gem traders inadvertently saturated European markets by the end of the 16th century, driving prices downward. This forced emerald handlers to search for new and wealthy customers. It was precisely at this time that Europeans were expanding trade with the Near and Far East, including territories claimed by the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires.
MOORISH KING WITH EMERALDS
‘Moor’ with c.1581 emerald cluster, 1724; https://skd-onlinecollection. skd.museum/Details/Index/117440 (courtesy of the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden).
Kris Lane
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.).