The Hunting of the Zarf

Starbucks isn't worthy.

Hello all! It’s taken me a while to get started on this edition of the newsletter, because nothing has struck my fancy lately and I’ve been getting a little panicky about it. But all is well! And three cheers for Woolley and Wallis — they recently posted the lots in their upcoming two-day Fine Jewellery auction, and thankfully something in there sent me haring down a whole new rabbit hole.

(By the way, I frickin’ love Woolley and Wallis sales. They usually have a ton of interesting 19th century stuff, and they photograph everything beautifully, which makes the practice of scrolling through a billion auction lots a much more pleasurable experience.)

So anyway, there I was, paging though the Day Two pieces and taking note of possible things to follow and/or write about, when I finally arrived at the last lot. That’s it up above. It’s a beautiful, tiny cup with a shape similar to an egg cup, and it’s completely encrusted with emeralds and diamonds. It’s gorgeous.

And then I read the description.

A rare emerald and diamond ‘zarf’ cup
Estimate: £50,000 - £100,000

Excuse me? What the eff is a zarf cup??

I’ll let the British Museum explain: