The love of antique pieces has been increasing day by day as many people have an immense desire to collect all those antique pieces and make them a center of attraction in their homes. And of course, antique pieces are usually sold at a very high cost but nowadays it has become really common as people are more concentrating on purchasing and collecting those beautiful artifacts and antique jewelry. Bidding has been the best option to buy those antique jewels. Usually, when we think about any antique pieces we imagine the jewelry of that time or any artifacts but these Mughal Era glasses which are full of jewels and have precious stone lenses are now something different than the usual.
Recently two pairs of beach welder Mughal Era spectacles which are fully decorated with diamonds and emerald lenses are now expected to fetch out to 3.5 million dollars each! These Mughal Era spectacles are auctioned in London on Wednesday and it may be sold at 3.5 million dollars.
According to some reports, the auction House Sotheby’s said that the glasses were commissioned by an unknown 17th century Prince. Further, they said that the precious stone lenses are believed to boost spiritual enlightenment.
There are two pairs of spectacles and one of them is named the Gate of Paradise. Gate of Paradise spectacles has emerald lenses that are set carefully on frames that are mounted by real diamonds. The other pair of spectacles is known as Halo of Light. This one has diamond lenses set carefully on a frame that is mounted in diamond. This one is made of full real diamonds. According to some reports, it is known that the lenses are said to date back to the 17th century while on the other hand, the frames are from the 19th century.
The specialist in the arts of the Islamic world at Sotheby’s, Alexandra Roy, provided many descriptions about the lens, and while mentioning about the importance and the stories the specialist said, “there are so many stories behind the spectacles. The emeralds came all over from Columbia in the 17th century through Portuguese merchant ships to the Mughal Empire. The Mughals loved the gemstones.”
While talking about it, Alexandra further said, “The diamonds came from the Golconda mines (in India) and at the Mughal court. These were cleaved from stones that originally would have weighed around 2 to 3 hundred carats. They were refashioned in their current nineteenth-century spectacle like fashion.”
Both the antique pairs of spectacle are being offered at Sotheby’s arts of the Islamic world. The spectacles have been estimated with the price of 1.5 million to 2.5 million pounds, which is USD 2 million to USD 3.4 million.
Further talking about the spectacles, Alexandra Roy said, “we have to be extraordinarily careful when it comes to the provenance of lots, we have actually known about the spectacles for a very long time since the 80s.”
Alexandra also said, “They go through a vigorous internal due diligence before we are able to offer them for sale. They have been examined by historians so they have been published in the academic world before. This is the first time we are offering them for sale but among the academic circles they are well known.”
Sotheby’s also talked about the spectacle’s extraordinary powers, “while ordinary lenses merrily function to improve sight, these filters were aids for spiritual enlightenment – with diamonds thought to illuminate and also, emeralds believed to have held miraculous powers to heal and to ward off evil.”
Talking about the purity of the gemstones they said, “the quality and purity of the gemstones is extraordinary and stones of this size will no doubt have been the reserve of an emperor.”
