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Inventory of Elizabeth I
The Inventory of Elizabeth I recorded the costume and gold and silver plate belonging to Elizabeth I in several inventories, and other documents, including rolls of New Year's Day gifts. Arthur Jefferies Collins published the Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I: The Inventory of 1574 from manuscripts in 1955. The published inventory describes jewels and silver-plate belonging to Elizabeth with detailed references to other source material. Two inventories of Elizabeth's costume and some of her jewellery were published by Janet Arnold in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocke'd (Maney, 1988).
In 1574 the office of the Jewel House was located in a two-storey building on the south side of the White Tower. This contained the records of the jewels and packing materials for sending jewels to court. The 1574 inventory was made by John Astley, Master and Treasurer of the Jewel House. The Master had an annual salary of £50 and was able to exact payments from goldsmiths appointed to work for the Jewel House, and those who transported plate from the House to diplomats. 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. In the inventory the items were listed in categories; below an outline of the main categories is given with some examples of the 1,605 entries.
The sources used by Collins were British Library Harley MS 1560 and Stowe MS 555 (see external links for digitised manuscripts). 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. Collins also collated information from other books and manuscripts to cross-reference information about the objects listed. Gifts of plate to the queen passed from the Privy Chamber to the Jewel House. Some pieces were melted down and others were given as diplomatic gifts. When the queen travelled, the towns she visited often gave her gifts of silver-gilt cups.
Janet Arnold published an annotated wardrobe inventory now in the British Library, (Stowe MS 557), consulting also a duplicate copy at the National Archives, and another inventory held by the Folger Shakespeare Library, MS V. b.72. The inventory includes some of the queen's jewels.
Janet Arnold also published a surviving wardrobe book which records gifts, fabrics issued to the gentlewomen who made Elizabeth's hoods, and losses of jewelled buttons and aglets from her clothes. Entries were signed by the gentlewomen and chamberers and can be very detailed: Elizabeth lost a pendant pearl from one of three fish that comprised a jewel called the "monster while visiting Wanstead Park on 25 February 1584.
Portraits of Elizabeth depict jewels, and may indicate how they were worn. 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. Some of the jewellery shown in portraits reflects the pieces described in the inventories, a theme explored by the costume historian Janet Arnold, and the jewellery historian Diana Scarisbrick. Thomas Randolph mentioned that Elizabeth wore a ring on a black ribbon around her neck while walking in a palace garden in May 1564.
On 21 May 1559 Elizabeth selected a group of jewels from the Tower of London for a celebration with French ambassadors for the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. 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), a jewel depicting several figures with the motto In Petra Christi sancta fient foedera, with chains set with gems and other jewels. It is not clear whether Elizabeth intended these items as gifts or wore them herself, but they were not included among the gifts listed by the Venetian ambassador.
Elizabeth took an interest in the making of jewels in London, in 1587 asking John Spilman, her household goldsmith, to employ English and foreign ("stranger") diamond cutters, ruby cutters, agate cutters, clockmakers, goldsmiths, and wire workers. When Elizabeth bought two expensive uncut diamonds in 1596, crystal substitute stones were made to set in a pattern piece of gold jewellery for her approval.
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Inventory of Elizabeth I
The Inventory of Elizabeth I recorded the costume and gold and silver plate belonging to Elizabeth I in several inventories, and other documents, including rolls of New Year's Day gifts. Arthur Jefferies Collins published the Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I: The Inventory of 1574 from manuscripts in 1955. The published inventory describes jewels and silver-plate belonging to Elizabeth with detailed references to other source material. Two inventories of Elizabeth's costume and some of her jewellery were published by Janet Arnold in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocke'd (Maney, 1988).
In 1574 the office of the Jewel House was located in a two-storey building on the south side of the White Tower. This contained the records of the jewels and packing materials for sending jewels to court. The 1574 inventory was made by John Astley, Master and Treasurer of the Jewel House. The Master had an annual salary of £50 and was able to exact payments from goldsmiths appointed to work for the Jewel House, and those who transported plate from the House to diplomats. 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. In the inventory the items were listed in categories; below an outline of the main categories is given with some examples of the 1,605 entries.
The sources used by Collins were British Library Harley MS 1560 and Stowe MS 555 (see external links for digitised manuscripts). 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. Collins also collated information from other books and manuscripts to cross-reference information about the objects listed. Gifts of plate to the queen passed from the Privy Chamber to the Jewel House. Some pieces were melted down and others were given as diplomatic gifts. When the queen travelled, the towns she visited often gave her gifts of silver-gilt cups.
Janet Arnold published an annotated wardrobe inventory now in the British Library, (Stowe MS 557), consulting also a duplicate copy at the National Archives, and another inventory held by the Folger Shakespeare Library, MS V. b.72. The inventory includes some of the queen's jewels.
Janet Arnold also published a surviving wardrobe book which records gifts, fabrics issued to the gentlewomen who made Elizabeth's hoods, and losses of jewelled buttons and aglets from her clothes. Entries were signed by the gentlewomen and chamberers and can be very detailed: Elizabeth lost a pendant pearl from one of three fish that comprised a jewel called the "monster while visiting Wanstead Park on 25 February 1584.
Portraits of Elizabeth depict jewels, and may indicate how they were worn. 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. Some of the jewellery shown in portraits reflects the pieces described in the inventories, a theme explored by the costume historian Janet Arnold, and the jewellery historian Diana Scarisbrick. Thomas Randolph mentioned that Elizabeth wore a ring on a black ribbon around her neck while walking in a palace garden in May 1564.
On 21 May 1559 Elizabeth selected a group of jewels from the Tower of London for a celebration with French ambassadors for the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. 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), a jewel depicting several figures with the motto In Petra Christi sancta fient foedera, with chains set with gems and other jewels. It is not clear whether Elizabeth intended these items as gifts or wore them herself, but they were not included among the gifts listed by the Venetian ambassador.
Elizabeth took an interest in the making of jewels in London, in 1587 asking John Spilman, her household goldsmith, to employ English and foreign ("stranger") diamond cutters, ruby cutters, agate cutters, clockmakers, goldsmiths, and wire workers. When Elizabeth bought two expensive uncut diamonds in 1596, crystal substitute stones were made to set in a pattern piece of gold jewellery for her approval.