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Decorations: John

The jewels of an English lady in the sixteenth century are shown in an "Inventory of the Money and Jewels of Anne, Dutches of Somerset, taken after her Death, by the Queen's Order, by John Wolley, one of the Privy Council, and John Fortescue, Master of Her Majesty's Great Wardrobe. April 21st, 1587. "A great chain of pearle and gold, enamelled with knots. A carkenet of gold and perles with knottes, with a pendant sapphire, with a fair perle annexed. A carkenet of perle and padlock of gold. A chain of fair perles, furnished with pipes of gold, enamelled with black. A plain chain of gold with small links. A pomander chain, with small beads of pomander and true-loves of perle, and many small perles to furnish the same, with pendants of mother-of-perle, and a little acorn appendant. A faucon of mother-of-perle, furnished with diamonds and rubies, standing upon a ragged staff of fair diamonds and rubies. A great jacinct, garnished with flowers of gold and perle, with a less jacinct on the back side, with a rough perle appendant. A tablet of gold of a story, furnished with diamonds and rubies, with a perle appendant. An agate set in gold, and garnished with small perles, with a perle appendant. A pair of flaggon braslets of gold, plain, in each braslet a jacinct. A double rope of perle of one ell long. Twenty-eight small rubies unset. Three perles, whereof two pendant. A double rope of perle, of one yard three-quarters long. A chaine of perle of a bigger sort, of four double. A lily pot of gold, with a sea-water stone in the midst, with two perles pendant. Four fair emeralds set in collets of lead. A little tablet of gold, enamelled with gold, with a perle appendant. A pillar of gold, garnished with eight diamonds. Nineteen amethysts, whereof one great one. A fair jewel of gold, set with diamonds on both sides, bordered with small perle. A great tablet of gold, enamelled black and white, garnished, the one side with an agate and six rubies, and on the other side with twelve diamonds. A tablet of gold, curiously wrought, set with six fair diamonds and three fair perles, whereof one pendant. A table of gold, garnished round with small perle, with a great ballast in the midst, and a perle pendant. A fair square tablet of gold like an H, with four diamonds and a rock-ruby, or ballast, in the midst, garnished with perle, and a pearl pendant."

There are many other objects of gold and enamel enumerated, and coffers and bags containing large sums of money.

She is described as a "lofty lady," relict of the great Duke of Somerset. The substance of her last will dated July 14th, 1586, is contained in Strype, with the numerous legacies it contained, among which are costly jewels and rings. In a curious characteristic letter of Lady Compton to her husband, apparently written (end of the sixteenth century) on the paternal wealth of the "rich Spencer," as he was called, we find among other items which she terms "reasonable":--"I would have pound 6,000 to buy me jewels, and pound 4,000 to buy me a pearl chain." "The goldsmith's shops in London," observes Fynes Moryson, the traveller (died 1614), "in England (being in divers streets, but especially that called Cheape-side), are exceedingly richly furnished continually with gold, and silver plate, and jewels. The goldsmith's shops upon the bridges of Florence and Paris have, perhaps, sometimes beene as richly or better furnished, for the time, on some nuptuall feast of the princes or like occasion, with plate and jewels borrowed of private persons for that purpose: but I may lawfully say, setting all love of my country apart, that I never see any such daily show, anything so sumptuous, in any place in the world, as in London." Towards the close of the sixteenth century, the luxury in dress of the Swedish nobles was excessive. In the list of jewels left by Duke Magnus are enumerated 184 large diamonds, 461 emeralds, 46 rubies, 256 pearls, independent of mounted stones, buttons with pendant pearls, half-armed men and Turk's heads in monster pearls, rubies, and diamonds. The consumption of seed pearls was incalculable. These were procured from the Unio margarateferus of the Swedish rivers, and are still taken in considerable quantities. At this period the courts of France and England seemed to rival each other in extravagant luxury. Bassompierre relates that for the ceremony of the baptism of the children of Henry IV. the king had a dress made which cost him fourteen thousand crowns. He paid six hundred crowns for the fashion only. It was composed of cloth of gold, embroidered with pearls.

It was towards the close of Elizabeth's reign that the celebrated Gabrielle d'Estrees wore, on a festive occasion, a dress of black satin, so ornamented with pearls and precious stones, that she could scarcely move under its weight. Such was the influence of her example in Paris, that the ladies even ornamented their shoes with jewels.

Evelyn, in his "Mundus Muliebris," or Voyage to Maryland, gives a rhyming catalogue of a lady's toilet, and mentions among her jewel decorations:-- "Diamond buckles two For garters, and as rich for shoe. A manteau girdle, ruby buckle, And brilliant diamond rings for knuckle. A sapphire bodkin for the hair, Of sparkling facet diamonds there; Three torquoise, ruby, emerald rings For fingers, and such pretty things As diamond pendants for the ears, Must needs be had, or two large pears; Pearl necklace, large and oriental, And diamond, and of amber pale." The reigns of the Georges were conspicuous for the lavish display of jewellery among the people of wealth and distinction of those periods. This we learn from the familiar letters of celebrated writers who frequented the courts of fashion, and who describe the "jewel mania" in many instances as extraordinary. Royal patrons were never found wanting. Queen Caroline (consort of George II.) wore on the occasion of her coronation, not only the pearl necklace of Queen Anne, "but she had on her head and shoulders all the pearls and necklaces she could borrow from the ladies of quality at one end of the town, and on her petticoat all the diamonds she could hire of the Jews and jewellers at the other quarters. So" (adds Lord Hervey, from whom the details are taken), "the appearance and the truth of her finery was a mixture of magnificence and meanness, not unlike the eclat of royalty in many other particulars, when it comes to be nicely considered, and its source traced to what money hires and flattery lends." At the marriage of the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg with George III., she was richly decorated with jewels. "The Queen," writes Horace Walpole, "was in white and silver. An endless mantle of violet-coloured velvet, lined with ermine, and attempted to be fastened on her shoulders by a bunch of huge pearls. On her head was a beautiful tiara of diamonds, worth three-score thousand pounds." Elsewhere, Walpole remarks, "Her stomacher was sumptuous." At the coronation of George III., the Countess of Northampton carried pound 300,000 worth of diamonds upon her; and other ladies dropped rubies and other precious stones from their dresses in quantities sufficient to have made the fortune of any single finder.

At Queen Charlotte's Drawing-room, to receive congratulations upon the happy recovery of her consort (George III.), eye-witnesses declare that the blaze of diamonds which covered her Majesty was something more than the ordinary glory. Around the Queen's neck was a double row of gold chain supporting a medallion. Across her shoulders was another chain of pearls, in three rows; but the portrait of the King was suspended from five rows of diamonds, fastened loose upon the dress behind, and streaming over the person with gorgeous effect. The tippet was of fine lace, fastened with the letter "G" in brilliants of immense value. In front of her Majesty's hair, in letters formed of diamonds, were easily legible the words, "God save the King."