Eastward to India
More or less independently of the western world, the making of fine jewels flourished in the Far East. In India the code of Manu, about 250 B.C., prescribed fines for poor workmanship and for the debasing of gold. A drama of the same period describes a workshop, with pearls and emeralds, and artisans to grind lapis lazuli, to cut shells, to pierce coral, and to make the filigree and other ornaments that have persisted in that part of the world unchanged to our day.
The lavishness of Oriental potentates is proverbial; their collections of precious stones and elaborate jewels have been as fabulous as their incalculable wealth. Almost to our own generation birthday gifts to maharajahs have matched the monarch’s weight in gold or precious stones. At the greatest period of Indian art, during the reign of the Mogul Shah Jehan, who died in 1666, the art of jewelry almost merged with that of architecture. In addition to the celebrated Peacock Throne, the Shah built the Great Mosque at Delhi, and at Agra the Pearl Mosque and that triumph of beauty, the Taj Mahal. This was erected as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahall, who was called “the adornment of the palace.”
In addition to the designs and patterns of tile that are a feature of the mosques, the Taj Mahal is adorned with great treasures of the East: “jasper from the Punjab, carnelians from Broach, turquoises from Tibet, agates from Yemen, lapis lazuli from Ceylon, coral from Arabia, garnets from Bundelcund, diamonds from Punnah, rock crystal from Malwar, onyx from Persia, chalcedony from Asia Minor, sapphires from Colombo.” It took thirteen years, from 1632 to 1645, to collect these treasures and construct the mausoleum. The memory of a woman may be buried there, but a beauty beyond description is preserved.
Over the Chinese Wall
Still farther east, in China, a more restrained and delicate beauty was developed. Piety and filial devotion taught the Chinese to limit their display. They cultivated the economy of good taste. The world’s largest known emerald, found in China, was carved into the figure of Kwan Yin, goddess of mercy. Jewels were not worn indiscriminately; they served not only to adorn but to signify station. A mandarin of the first rank wore ruby or red tourmaline; a mandarin of the second, coral or garnet; of the third, beryl or lapis lazuli; of the fourth, rock crystal; and of the fifth, other stones of white.
Beyond all other stones the Chinese prized “the divine stone,” jade. While this occurs in various shades, even of blue, of red, of brown, it was, and still is, especially sought in ivory white and in the shades of green, from light apple to the dark “imperial jade.” This was, legend whispered, a crystallization of the spirit of the sea. Its possession conferred longevity, man’s prolonged moment in the eternity of the gods.
A perfect piece of jade is left uncarved. As a pendant, brooch, or ring, it stands alone, in simple beauty. A cultured Chinese was likely to have one with him unmounted, just the stone, to cherish it and finger it and feel its silken surface. There were experts who could tell the quality, the very color, of a piece of jade, without looking at it, just from the feel.
Treasured through the centuries in China, jade has come to be prized in the West as well. The Emperor Kuang-hou sent Queen Victoria, for her Jubilee, a sceptre of jade. The deep green of the richest jade, the divine stone, makes it a fit companion for the diamond, the monarch of gems.