FAMOUS GEMS TO GO HOME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2320, 25 August 1921, Page 1

FAMOUS GEMS TO GO HOME.

RELICS OF MOGUL EMPIRE

Two famous Mogul jewels which have shared adventures with the celebrated Kohi-i-noor diamond, are to be sent from London to India to be restored to one of its great museums.

They have been acquired by.the Government of India, their purchase at Christie’s having been privately arranged in consultation with the India. Office. Their actual destination is not yet decided, although Delhi has been suggested. It. was at Delhi that the jewels were probably made, for the Mogul Emperor, Shah Julian, about 1050. One is an emerald bow ring designed to protect the left thumb when a strained bow string is released; and the other is an emerald toilet cup, mounted in gold jewelled with rubies, the foot being chased and partly overlaid with translucent gold enamel. Each jewel is carved from a single stone. After the sack of Delhi in 1730, these treasures —and others —were carried off by Nadir Shah, ruler of Persia and Afghanistan; and they were restored by the fugitive Shah Sujah to Ranjit Sing at Lahore in 1813. They were found with the regalia in the Lahore Royal Treasury at the end of the second Sikh war in 1810, and were bought by the Governor-General ol' that day, Lord Da lbous ie.

They*passed to his daughter; and after her death were for several years on loan in the Victoria and Albert Museum. During the war they were put under cover for safety.