Columbian Earrings
2011
Necklace Holders Have Their Place In History
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC is home to such a lot that’s rare and wonderful in the world. One of the more spectacular collections is the collection of gems in the Museum of Natural History.
There you can see glorious crystals and minerals in their natural form, as well as some of the most superb pieces of jewelry ever created. There are crowns worn by royalty, giant diamond earrings worn by the cursed French queen Marie-Antoinette.
They’re all stunning and awe-inspiring, but nothing is more mysterious than the rare earth-green of the emerald. The Smithsonian is home to the most great emeralds ever known, and we’re incredibly fortunate to have them in this country.
One doesn’t routinely associate beautiful jewelry with the time of the Spanish Inquisition. But in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of gems, there is a beautiful necklace holder stand and a necklace badge holder of diamonds and emeralds.
It’s a spectacular double row of diamonds and emeralds ending in a candelabrum of emeralds. There is sadly little info about the provenance of these necklace holders. The massive diamonds and Columbian emeralds were most likely cut in India in the 17th century.
This is an example of cut gemstones from the Smithonian’s Collection. There are really only legends surrounding this wall necklace holder display stand were used in this era.The Spanish and French have worn it from times to times dignitaries.
In the early 20th century, it was acquired by the Maharajah of Indore, whose child sold the necklace in 1947 to Harry Winston. Winston afterwards sold the necklace to Mrs. Pittsburgh’s Cora Hubbard Williams. She gave it to the Smithsonian in 1972.
Emeralds are a type of crystal known as beryls. Beryls are normally clear crystals, but when infused with chromium or vanadium, they achieve diverse gradations of green. The purest green is the most rare emeralds and many of us actually prefer an emerald that has a blue-green hint.
Before the 16th century, the only known emerald deposits were in Cleopatra’s Egyptian mines. But after emeralds were found in Columbia, those became the gold standard in emeralds.
Columbian emeralds have been discovered by archaeologists among artifacts of such tribes as the Inca, Maya, Aztec, Toltec and the lesser-known Chibcha Indians. Emeralds are among the rarest of gemstones and can be dearer per carat than even the finest diamonds!
They are a hard mineral, with a Moh’s hardness scale of seven or eight ( compared against a diamond’s 10 ). While most emeralds are found in Africa and Russia, there were findings of emerald deposits in North Carolina!
Golden Earring – Going To The Run
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