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THE wearing of jewels, and their adaptation to various articles of costume, dates from the most ancient times. I can but briefly allude to some particular objects. The armilla, or bracelet, is mentioned in Gen. xxiv. 22. It has been throughout all ages the most universal of all ornaments of the person, and was worn either on the wrist or the arm. In the Assyrian bas-reliefs at Nineveh, the kings are represented with the arms encircled by armlets and bracelets, remarkable for the beauty of their form. The clasps were formed by the heads of animals, and the centre by stars and rosettes, probably (observes Layard) inlaid with precious stones. "The Egyptians," says Sir G. Wilkinson, "wore ARMLETS and BRACELETS frequently inlaid with jewels; some were in the shape of snakes, and others, as single rings, worn by men as well as women. In the Leyden Museum is a gold bracelet bearing the name of the third Thotmes, which was doubtless once worn by that monarch, and without any great license of imagination we may suppose it to have been seen by Moses himself if Thotmes was the Pharaoh who oppressed the Israelites."
It is singular that in our own country, among the Anglo-Saxons, the bracelets of the male sex were more costly than those allotted to the fair; they were of gold, silver, and ivory, enriched, sometimes, with precious stones. In the poems of Beowulf we find, respecting a Danish queen:-- "Waltheow came forth The Queen of Hrothgar, Mindful of her descent, Circled with gold.
She, the queen, circled with bracelets."
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries bracelets were very common, and were frequently adorned with jewels. They were worn as love-tokens by both sexes. In "Cupid's Revenge," by Beaumont and Fletcher, we read:-- "Given ear-rings we will wear Bracelets of our lovers' hair, Which they on our arms shall twist With our names carv'd on our wrist." In Barnfield's "Affectionate Shepherd" (1594):-- "I would put amber bracelets on thy wrist, Crownets of pearls about thy naked arms."
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, presented Queen Elizabeth with an "armlet or shackle of gold, all over fairly garnished with rubies and diamonds, having within, in the clasp, a watch, and outside, a fair lozenge diamond. NECKLACES, handsome and richly ornamented, were a principal part of the dress, both of men and women, among the ancient Egyptians; and some idea of the number of jewels they wore (remarks Sir G. Wilkinson) may be formed from those borrowed by the Israelites at the time of the Exodus, and by the paintings of Thebes. They consisted of gold or of beads, of various qualities and shapes, disposed according to fancy and enriched with jewels. Necklaces of gold thickly set with gems were worn by the Greeks and Romans of both sexes. There was a famous necklace of the most costly precious stones upon the statue of Vesta in Rome, to whose vengeance Zosimus attributes the tragic end of Serena, Stilicho's widow, who had despoiled her of it. By the command of Honorius she was strangled.
The necklace taken from the neck of the Hindoo King Jaipal, captured by Mahmud (A.D. 1001) was composed of large pearls, rubies, etc., and was valued at two hundred thousand dinars, or a good deal more than a hundred thousand pounds. Homer mentions a necklace curiously wrought of gold interwined with amber, which Eurymachus presented to Penelope.
Chaucer, in the "Romaunt of the Rose," says of the necklace, or chevesaile as it was termed in French:-- "About her necke of gentle entaile, Was set the riche chevesaile, In which there was full great plenty Of stones fair and clear to see." The dress of a lady in 1485, that of Isabella Cheyne, in Blickling Church, Norfolk, shows a necklace formed of pendant jewels exceedingly massive and splendid.
In the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. the necklace frequently assumed the form of a jewelled collar, with a central pendant. Anna Boleyn wore a simple row of pearls with a large one suspended from the centre. In the reign of Elizabeth it was not uncommon to wear several necklaces, and to allow them to hang to the waist where they were looped to the girdle. A portrait of the Countess of Bedford, in the same reign, exhibits that lady in a most magnificent one of lozenge-shaped groups of jewels hanging round her shoulders, and gathered in a festoon at her breast, from whence it hangs in an elegant loop to the waist. The Earl of Leicester, in the fifteenth year of Elizabeth's reign, presented her with a rich carcanet or collar of gold, enriched with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. Anne of Denmark, wife of James I., wears several round her neck, as well as a large band of four rows of pearls, descending like a baldrick from the right shoulder to the waist on the left side.
Mary Queen of Scots had a carbuncle appended to her necklace, valued at five hundred crowns.
Amongst the list of monies received by the Earl of Craven as executor to Prince Rupert, we find, "of Mrs. Ellen Gwynne, for the great pearl necklace, pound 4,520."
The great display of these rich ornaments ceased in the next reign, but they were scarcely ever worn in greater profusion than at present. In the Herz collection of jewellery there was a necklace formed out of splendid rubies and emeralds, of fine colour, and as large as horse-beans. The Countess of Mount-Charles possesses a necklace and pendant of remarkable beauty, of Italian workmanship, of the sixteenth century. It is composed of gold open-worked medallions, exquisitely enamelled and jewelled, with rubies, etc., representing, in minute and beautifully executed groups of figures, events in the life of our Blessed Lord. This superb specimen of Italian cinque-cento work has been attributed to Benvenuto Cellini, and is at least as good as anything extant known to be by his hand.
CARCANETS, from the French carcan, a necklace set with precious stones, or strung with pearls, are frequently mentioned by our olden dramatists. In "Cynthia's Revels" we read:-- "Give him jewels, bracelets, carcanets."
In the "City Madam":-- "Your carkanets That did adorn your neck of equal value." It seems, however, that the word was not confined to a necklace, but applied to the jewels, or wreaths of precious stones, like those worn about the neck, entwined in ladies' hair; thus Randolph sings:-- "I'll clasp thy neck where should be set A rich and orient carcanet." CHAINS and COLLARS of gold, probably adorned with precious stones, appear to have been as much used among the Hebrews, for ornament and official distinction, as they are among ourselves at the present day. The earliest mention of them occurs in Gen. xli. 42, where we are told that it formed a part of the investiture of Joseph in Egypt. A later instance occurs in Dan. v. 29, from which we learn that it was part of a dress of honour at Babylon. Ahasueras placed a chain round the neck of Mordecai. The ancient Persians were extremely fond of gold and jewelled ornaments, and conspicuous among the various objects was a chain.