This document provides the full text, there are only very few image changes to the printed version. Contributions by KONSTANTINOS CHATZIANTONIOU JOACHIM GIERLICHS FRANAK HILLOOWALA KATHRYN KALEMKERIAN SABA AL KUWARI LISA MALCOM JULES MCDEVITT SHEIKHA AL NASSER SUSAN REES MICHELLE WALTON

Pepper from Cochin, cinnamon from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and cloves from the Moluccas were not the only treasures the Portuguese sought in Asia. Precious gems and jewellery captivated the minds of these adventurers from the moment they disembarked from their carracks. The «great Oriental adventure», whether undertaken by traders, merchants, priests, explorers or the military, was driven by the lure of Oriental luxury goods and by the 'love of money and a lust for gems', as Fernão Mendes Pinto so aptly underscored. A 'frantic thirst' for precious gems that fitted the voyager’s pocket, whether officer, expert or occasional trader, each one confident of lucrative returns from trafficking that fell outside the scope of the scope of the crown’s control. In contrast, the pepper trade was reserved as an exclusive royal monopoly. Asian gems were soon accurately depicted in paintings by artists of the Lisbon court. Apart from territorial expansion and conquest, this Portuguese adventure was also one of missionary work, carried out far from Europe, and which required the creation of doctrinal instruments for religious instruction and new liturgical implements for the newly converted to marvel at. This «empire of objects», worked in silver and gold, emerged out of the confluence of many different artistic worlds, unknown to one another, which in Asia acquired its own particular features to produce variations on the European models brought by the nobility and the missionaries. This circulation of models extended from Hormuz to Goa and onwards to Malabar, from Cochin to Bengal along the Coromandel coast taking in the Taprobane (Ceylon) as well as out into the - fittingly coined - 'Mediterranean' of the China Sea, from the straits of Malacca to the seas of Java and into the rivers of Asia. A voyage of styles and forms that accompanied the growing geographic knowledge about Asia which was hitherto unknown to the Europeans. Such is the current itinerary for our 'Jewels from the India Run', showcasing the treasures of this 'promised land', created from gems, gold and silver from an Asia transformed by the Portuguese, and featuring an impressive group of two hundred works of art, many never previously exhibited, exquisitely crafted in gold and silver, some studded with precious gems, and others embellished with vivid enamels. Rare and unique objects presented within the cultural context and historical framework of their artistic periods of creation. An awe-inspiring range of works that, just like Mendes Pinto, lead us to exclaim: 'that in all my days I have never seen such a wondrous thing.'

Hugo Miguel Crespo The Art of Collecting. Lisbon, Europe and the Early Modern World (1500-1800). Lisbon, 2019, ISBN: 978-989-96180-5-3 Two essays by Annemarie Jordan Gschwend The Art of Collecting among Habsburg Women. Catherine and Juana of Austria and their pursuit of luxury, pp. 35-53 The Art of Collecting Asian Folding Fans at the Lisbon Court, pp.79-93

This article presents a detailed analysis of an inlaid brass pyxis produced in Damascus in the second decade of the 20th century. The object is made from the lower sections of two artillery shell casings, one of which carries markings of the German munitions factory where it was originally manufactured. This unusual object is contextualized within the larger phenomena of the 'Mamluk Revival' style in Europe and the Islamic world and of the 'Trench Art' made during and after World War I.