Home › Decorations › Decorations: Chaucer

Decorations: Chaucer

Chaucer, in "Troilus and Creseida," says:-- "A broche of gold and azure, In which a ruby set was like an herte, Creseide him gave, and stucke it on his sherte."

Chaucer describes a carpenter's wife as wearing a very large brooch:-- "A broche she bare upon hire low colere As brode as is the bosse of a bokelere."

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, brooches garnished with jewels were commonly worn by all persons of rank and means, and were of great value and beauty. Holbein designed several for Henry VIII., the drawings of which are still in the British Museum The brooches were placed not only about the body but were worn in caps and hats by both sexes. Boasting of the riches of Virginia, Seagul, in the play of "Eastward Hoe!" (1605), says "that the people there stuck rubies and diamonds in their children's caps, as common as our children wear saffron-gilt broches and groats with holes in them." In Scott's "Lord of the Isles, "there is a description in six stanzas of the Brooch of Lorn:-- "Whence the brooch of burning gold That clasps the chieftain's mantle fold, Wrought and chased with rare device, Studded fair with gems of price." In the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," the wife of Watt Tinlinn, the shoemaker, is described as-- "Stout, ruddy, and dark brow'd, Of silver brooch and bracelet proud." Brooches of value were heirlooms. They were worn in the cap for various reasons, one of which was as a decoration. They were sometimes thus worn as tokens of pilgrimage, and bore the figure of the saint at whose shrine they were distributed. Among the jewels of Queen Mary are mentioned "crosses and Ihesus brouches."

Buttons of diamonds and other precious stones are frequently mentioned as decorations of dress by old writers, especially in the sixteenth century, when their use became general among the wealthy.

Cellini describes the button he made for the pontifical cope, the execution of which gained him great fame, and is spoken of by Vasari in high praise:--"I had laid the diamond exactly in the centre of the work, and over it I had represented God the Father sitting in a sort of free, easy attitude, which suited admirably well with the rest of the piece, and did not in the least crowd the diamond; His right hand was lifted up, giving His blessing. Under the diamond I had drawn three little boys, who supported it with their arms raised aloft. One of these boys, which stood in the middle, was in full, and the other two in half, relievo. Round it was a number of figures of boys, placed among other glittering jewels. The remainder of God the Father was covered with a cloak, which wantoned in the wind, from whence issued several figures of boys, with other striking ornaments most beautiful to behold. This work was made of a white stucco, upon a black stone." The Pope was so delighted with this work of art that he exclaimed, "Benvenuto, had you been my very self, you could not have designed this with greater propriety."