Carved emerald cup

This emerald cup is made of three separate pieces (a bowl, knopped stem, and domed base) joined together by a central gold rod. The cup weighs an impressive 408.5 carats. It is decorated on its exterior surface with a wheel-cut pattern of alternating chevrons and stripes. This cup has been identified as a wine cup, and most likely belonged to the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1013-37 AH/1605-27 CE), who was known to have had a collection of hundreds of wine cups made from precious and semi-precious stones, such as jade, spinel and emerald. Fine emeralds such as this were imported from Columbia in South America, and traded through European merchants arriving to the Mughal courts in the 10th century AH/16th century CE.