On each aide
of the peacock stand two nosegays as high as the bird, consisting of
various sorts of flowers, all of beaten gold enamelled."
"When the king seats himself upon the throne there is a transparent jewel,
with a diamond appendant of eighty or ninety carats weight, encompassed
with rubies and emeralds, so hung that it is always in his eye. The twelve
pillars also, that uphold the canopy, are set with rows of fair pearl,
round, and of an excellent water, that weigh from six to ten carats
apiece."
"At the distance of four feet, upon each side of the throne, are placed
two umbrellas, the handles of which are about eight feet high, covered
with diamonds, the umbrellas themselves being of crimson velvet,
embroidered and fringed with pearl."
"This is the famous throne which Tamerlane began and Shah Jehan finished;
and is really reported to have cost a hundred and sixty millions and five
hundred thousand livres of our money."
One can picture the enraptured diamond merchant examining this masterpiece
of Oriental luxury with awe-struck eye, appraising the size and lustre of
each gem, and taking the fullest notes with which to dazzle his countrymen
on returning to the more prosaic Europe from what was then indeed the
"Gorgeous East!" This world-famous throne was seized by Nadir Shah, when
he sacked Delhi in 1739, and carried away (together with our Koh-i-noor
diamond) into Persia. Dow, who saw the famous throne some twenty years
before Tavernier, describes _two_ peacocks standing behind it with their
tails expanded, which were studded with jewels.
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