corundum, history.1, quality.10, gems, gold, spinel, pearls, turquoise, rhino horn, amber, Indian lapidary

Crespo examines the jewelry and precious objects that circulated between India and Portugal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the maritime network of the Portuguese Estado da Índia. Drawing upon surviving jewels, documentary records, inventories, paintings, and other contemporary sources, he explores how Indian gemstones, materials, techniques, and designs entered European collections and influenced Portuguese jewelry. Particular attention is given to diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls, and other precious materials carried along the India Run (Carreira da Índia), as well as to objects produced by Indian and Indo-Portuguese craftsmen. The study demonstrates that this exchange was not simply the importation of Asian gems into Europe but a complex interaction of Portuguese and Indian tastes, technologies, and traditions. Jewels served as personal ornaments, diplomatic gifts, devotional objects, indicators of social status, and portable stores of wealth. Richly illustrated with surviving objects and comparative material, the volume provides an important study of the gemstone trade and the cross-cultural development of jewelry during the period of early Portuguese expansion in Asia.