TIDBITS 12/02/07

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We encourage you to forward this email to friends and colleagues. ====================================== All of you who did not know HAH was Helen Hayes ... please raise your hands. That said .... A Mughal's Emerald.

It's hexagonal. It weighs a whopping 167.09 carats. And the front is carved in low relief with a flowering plant design. The other side ... which is not shown ... has a flowerhead motif. The sides are decorated with foliage. It's value--about 15 years ago-- was roughly $200,000. Today ... who knows?

There was only a small number of these large carved emeralds--to the best knowledge available at the time--to have been made under the patronage of the Mughal Emperors in India at the height of their power an importance. The outline of this stone derives from the six sided emerald crystal from which it was originally carved.

This stone is distinguished ... not only for it's size ... but also for its even green hue. It has less flaws and inclusions than are normally seen in larger emeralds.

As for the stylized floral designs ... well ... they are typically Mughal. It is thought that this type of carving was introduced by the Emperor Jahangir after having visited Kashmir in 1620.

There are times when I have a great more I could add but I hold back in order to keep Tidbits short and sweet. I'm not crazy about heavy- handed pedantics. Then there are times--like today--when I simply have nothing more to say. This is due to an arcane attraction to ignorance which resides deep within my warped soul. That--of course--plus the fact that the stupid periodical from which I gleaned this article was amazingly sparse. You can call consider this last paragraph as filler.

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at

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where you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says Current Tidbits ... and then click on it in order to view a carved emerald that was created during the Mughal dynasties.

And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark

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