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FAMOUS PEARLS AND COLLECTIONS 459
ornamentation
was estimated at 160,500,000 livres or $60,187,500; and the present
value of the throne as it stands in the shah's palace at Teheran,
whither it was carried by Nadir Shah from the sack of Delhi in 1739,
even though divested of many of its most valuable gems, is estimated at
$13,000,00ο.1 The designer of the Peacock Throne was Austin
de Bordeaux, who also planned the magnificent Taj Mahal. He was named
by Shah Jehan, "Jewel-Handed," and received a salary of two thousand rupees a month.
Shah's "Tippet." Sir
Harford Jones Brydges' description of the jewels of the Shah of Persia
at Teheran is of particular value, since he had formerly dealt in
jewels and was an expert in such matters. He says:
I
was particularly struck with the king's tippet, a covering for part of
his back, his shoulders and his arms, which is only used on the very
highest occasions. It is a piece of pearl work of the most beautiful
pattern; the pearls are worked on velvet, but they stand so close
together that little, if any, of the velvet is visible. It took me a
good hour to examine this single article, which I have no fear of
saying can not be matched in the world. There was not a single pearl
employed in forming this most gorgeous trapping less in size than the
largest marrow-fat pea I ever saw raised in England, and many—I should
suppose from 150 to 200—the size of a wild plum, and throughout the
whole of these pearls, it would puzzle the best jeweler who should
examine them most critically to discover in more than 4 or 5 a serious
fault. The tassel is formed of pearls of the most uncommon size and
beauty ; and the emerald which forms the top of the tassel is perhaps
the largest perfect one in the world. . . . For some days after I had
seen these jewels, I attempted to make an estimate of their value, but
I got so confused in the recollection of their weight and the allowance
to be made in some of them for their perfection in water and color,
that I gave it up as impossible. I cannot, however, think I shall much
mislead if I say that on a moderate, perhaps a low calculation, their
value cannot be less than fifteen millions [sterling?] of our money.2
Shah's Pearls in 1820.
Nearly a century ago the elaborate state costume of the Shah of Persia
was described by the English artist, Sir Robert Ker Porter. In this
description he mentioned particularly the pearls in the tiara, the
pear-shaped pearls of immense size with which the plumes were tipped,
the two strings of pearls—"probably the largest in the world"—which
crossed the king's shoulders, and the
1 Benjamin, "Persia," p. 73. of Persia, in the Years 1807-1811," London,
'Brydges, "An Account of the Transac- 1834, p. 383. tions of His Majesty's Mission to the Court
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