Indian Enamelled Gold, Pierced Floral Pendant set with Carved Emeralds & Diamonds

This very fine pierced, floral-form pendant is of gold (most probably reinforced with lac). It is set with nine large emeralds, each of which has been carved to the surface with flowers, and nine rose-cut diamonds. A Baroque pearl is suspended from the lower end. A loop at the top allows for suspension from a chain so that the pendant may be worn from the neck.

The sides have traces of green enamel. The reverse has been finely enamelled in cream, green and red with multiple bird motifs among foliage.

The carving of emeralds with floral and other designs was much in vogue among the Mughal courts.

Emeralds were credited with therapeutic and talismanic properties, and most particularly they were believed to counteract the effects of poison – poisoning was a common means of vanquishing one’s enemies in court intrigues. Emeralds sourced from Spanish colonial mines in Colombia were imported to India from the end of the sixteenth century. Portuguese merchants operating from Goa and who traded with Spanish suppliers were an important source of emeralds for Mughal India. Many were engraved in workshops in Jaipur or Gujarat with floral and leafy motifs.

The carved emeralds here hark back to earlier centuries when emeralds were carved in Mughal India, and might well be from the eighteenth century. An eighteenth century carved emerald with a related flower motif is in the Khalili Collection and illustrated in Moura Carvalho (2010, p. 67).

The pendant is in fine condition (only minor, age-related losses to the enamelling) and highly wearable.