Inventory of Elizabeth I
The post was lucrative, but some of the perquisites of the role were exaggerated or overstated by Sir Gilbert Talbot, who was made Master in 1660 and in 1680 wrote a treatise entitled Of the Jewel house.
The manuscripts represent the "Quenis Majesties juelles plate and other stuff" in 1574 and additions by gift or purchase over the next 20 years which were kept in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
Her ruff in a portrait c.1595 is decorated with 25 red arrows of rubies feathered with pearls, and tall jewelled spikes top her hair echoing obelisks embroidered on her dress.
These included two diamond-set brooches depicting David And Goliath, one with Goliath's armour composed of diamonds (a diamond-set example held by the Green Vault, Dresden is later),[41] a jewel depicting several figures with the motto In Petra Christi sancta fient foedera, with chains set with gems and other jewels.
[46] A lady in waiting, and keeper of her jewellery, Blanche Parry, made an inventory in 1587, now held by the British Library, listing 628 pieces, which passed into the custody of Mary Radcliffe.
[51] In January 1585 Catherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham gave her "a jewel of gold being a dolphin fully garnished with sparks of ruby with a personage upon his back having a lute in his hand", a representation of the classical myth of Arion.
[74] Later, the Parisian jewellery may have been intended to be diplomatic gifts at the "interview", the planned meeting between Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth in England which never took place.
The Earl of Pembroke became involved in buying the jewels and chains in Paris and there was some difficulty in obtaining credit from the Italian financier Guido Cavalcanti.
[75] One French piece listed in the queen's inventory was "a chain of Paris work being white and tawny "bugle" slightly garnished with gold".
[76] William Cecil had previously written to Throckmorton in May 1561, before Mary had returned to Scotland from France, asking him to find a goldsmith in Paris to bring or send items for Elizabeth and her ladies to "be gay in this Court towards the progress".
Elizabeth was interested in a jewel with a large ruby and pearl pendant, and Dymocke claimed she jokingly said the King of Sweden would buy it for her.
He gave Eric XIV a pair of perfumed gloves, and discussed jewels and Elizabeth's marriage plans, although he was not an accredited diplomat.
[79] Elizabeth had a quantity of old jewels from the Tower of London appraised for sale in October 1600 by the goldsmiths Hugh Kayle, John Spilman, and Leonard Bushe.
[80] The goldsmiths William Herrick and John Spilman reset a number of Elizabeth's gems on a gold circlet or coronet which Anne of Denmark wore to her English coronation on 25 July 1603.
He gave his wife Anne of Denmark a cup made of unicorn's horn with a gold cover (believed to guard against poison) set with diamonds and pearls, a gold jug or ewer, a salt with a branch set with sapphires and serpent's tongues (really fossilized shark teeth, also a safeguard against poisoning), and a crystal chess board with topaz and crystal pieces.
