The Emerald Through the Ages, Between Myths and Reality
Once upon a time, long before man named the stars, a stone was born from the bowels of the Earth, green as the sap of the world. The emerald. It is found in the legends of almost all peoples, as if it possessed the gift of slipping into the dreams of civilizations...
Cleopatra, the queen of queens, was so enamored with it that she had her own mines nestled in the Eastern mountains, the Mons Smaragdus. In India, it was long considered the stone of divine knowledge. The Vedic texts, these ancient sacred poems, speak of precious gems linked to the planets: the emerald corresponded to Mercury, master of intelligence and eloquence. Throughout the centuries, it has fascinated Moghul emperors, tsars, and maharajas. In October 2011 at Sotheby's, glasses with lenses cut from emerald, nicknamed "Gates of Paradise," were auctioned for several million euros. "Emeralds were believed to possess miraculous powers: they could heal and protect from evil. For Shah Jahan, in the extreme state of mourning he found himself in after the loss of his loved one, looking through glasses cut from emerald could have been intended to strengthen and heal his vision," explains Ebba Koch, a teacher at the Institute of Art History in Vienna, Austria. /public-objects/2f920966-b527-48b0-8cb3-0b82e671226c-98b921aa-8cae-4bdb-81d7-05f85ff0818c-%C3%82%C2%A9Sotheby's210902164720-06-mughal-spectacles-diamond-emerald.webp Image sélectionnée More recently, on June 17, 2025, three Mughal jewels dating from the mid-18th century were auctioned at Christie's in New York. One of them consists of five Colombian emeralds, engraved on both sides, with a total weight of approximately 1150 carats. /public-objects/ad8c2ad5-3c8a-49ee-b029-972b38159442-25e754c1-831b-4887-a3fd-fcd36c080308-74125623-Art-B_JPEG%20large.webp Image sélectionnée Even today, some jewelers choose it not for its perfection, but for its inclusions, these small internal fractures known as "gardens". The famous "emerald cut", rectangular in shape, was invented to protect the stone, more fragile due to its natural fissures. This is proof that, in the world of gemstones, character sometimes matters as much as purity.