Hancocks London acquires named Inchiquin emerald jewel for May birthstone shoppers

Hancocks London has acquired a circa-1890 Inchiquin jewel built around a 5.67-carat antique Colombian emerald, a piece that matters as much for its paper trail as for its size. For May birthstone buyers, the draw is not just color. It is documented aristocratic ownership, old-cut diamonds, and a setting that can shift from pendant to bangle.

The stone sits in a convertible jewel framed by old mine-cut and European-cut diamonds, the kind of antique cutting that gives a warmer, softer sparkle than modern brilliant styles. Hancocks says the emerald has received an “Exceptional Emerald” designation from the Swiss Gemmological Institute, with testing reportedly finding no indications of clarity modification and describing the gem as museum-quality. That matters in a market where emeralds are often treated, filled, or heavily polished into submission. A clean report and an antique Colombian origin put this stone in a far more serious category.

Its history is unusually well documented. The jewel was given to Ethel Jane Foster on January 14, 1896, when she married the Honourable Lucius William O’Brien at Richard’s Castle near Ludlow in Shropshire. Four years later, Lucius William O’Brien became the 15th Baron Inchiquin and later served as an Irish Representative Peer in the House of Lords. The title of Baron Inchiquin was created by King Henry VIII in 1543 for Murrough O’Brien, and the family traces its lineage back to Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland from 1002 to 1014.

The piece stayed in the O’Brien family for more than a century, and some accounts place its residence there for over 130 years. Lady Ethel Inchiquin’s 1939 will described it as her “large emerald and diamond bracelet,” a detail that gives the jewel a clear identity beyond its carat weight. That kind of provenance is exactly what separates a historic jewel from a handsome green-stone purchase: it gives buyers a named object, not just a gem.

Guy Burton, managing director of Hancocks London, said the Inchiquin Emerald belongs to an exceptionally small group of named heritage jewels available today and that jewels of this caliber rarely come to market, especially a Colombian emerald with Irish aristocratic provenance. The jewel was on display at Hancocks London in St James’s, with price available on application, a fitting arrangement for a piece whose value rests on rarity, condition, and the kind of history collectors can actually trace.