Bejeweled glasses linked with Golconda mines may fetch up to $3.5 million at Sotheby’s auction

Pair of spectacle frames bedecked with emerald and diamonds namely the “Gate of Paradise” and “Halo of Light” commissioned by an anonymous 17th-century prince, ironically for spiritual enlightenment to be auctioned in London.

The lenses are believed to date back between the 17th century and the 19th century when emeralds and other precious stones were traded through Portuguese merchant ships to the Mughal empire, given the irrepressible love of Mughals for gemstones.

Alexandra Roy, a specialist in the arts of the Islamic world at Sotheby’s informed Reuters that diamonds came from the Golconda mines (in India) and at the Mughal court, these were cleaved from stones which originally would have weighed two to three hundred carats … They were re-fashioned in their current 19th-century spectacle-like fashion.

Both pairs go under the hammer and are being offered at Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World & India sale on Wednesday at a King’s ransom of 1.5 million to 2.5 million pounds ($2 million – $3.4 million).

“We have to be extraordinarily careful when it comes to the provenance of lots, we have actually known about these spectacles for a very long time, since the ’80s,” Roy said.

Currently, under the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Golconda has produced many large diamonds and precious stones, several of which are or have been a part of crown jewels. The mine was established in the 16th century and operated until the 19th century. It is also said that Golconda diamond has a quality “like water or a river going through the gem. Hailed as the ‘gems of the first water’, the transparency of coveted diamonds is unparalleled