This emerald was previously auctioned by Christie's London in June of 1961. The catalogue text stated that the emerald was believed to have been brought to England from India in 1760 by Robert, Lord Clive, who was nephew and ward of an ancestor of the 1961 vendor. Lord Clive is best known for his participation in the French-English Colonial Wars of 1754-1763. A member of the East India Company, he took advantage of rivalries between Indian Princes to recapture Calcutta from the French for the English.