The King then writes that he is sending for his "Babie's owin wearing
... the Three Brethren,[181] that you knowe full well, but newlie sette,
and the Mirroure of Frawnce, the fellowe of the Portugall Dyamont,
quhiche I wolde wishe you to weare alone in your hatte with a litle
blakke feather." To his "sweete Gosseppe" he sends "a fair table
dyamonde." "I have hung," he says, "a faire peare pearle to it for
wearing in thy hatte or quhair thow pleasis."[182]
[181] See p. 209.
[182] Nichols, _Progresses of James I_, IV, p. 830. A complete
list of the jewels removed from the Tower is given in _Archæologia_,
XXI, p. 148.
As the result of extensive transactions both with the Crown and the
nobility the jewellers of the day seem to have reaped a rich harvest;
and they attained to positions of eminence by adding banking to their
more ancient art of working in the precious metals. Of the royal
jewellers, George Heriot of Edinburgh--rendered immortal by Sir Walter
Scott as "Jingling Geordie"--the founder of Heriot's Hospital, comes
first to mind. Heriot received in 1597 a life appointment as jeweller to
Queen Anne of Denmark, and in 1601 James made him his own jeweller. He
followed the King to London, and in 1603, together with William Herrick
and John Spilman, was appointed jeweller to the King, Queen, and Prince,
at a yearly salary of £50. Immense sums of money were paid him both as
interest on loans and for the jewels supplied to their Majesties, of
which long lists have been preserved. Sir John Spilman, a German by
birth and one of the chief jewellers of Queen Elizabeth, executed great
quantities of jewellery at the royal commands; but Sir William Herrick
seems to have obtained an even larger share of the royal patronage.
Queen Anne of Denmark, who spent an enormous amount on personal
ornaments, received £36,000 worth from him alone. "Queen Anne," writes a
contemporary shortly after her death, "hath left a world of brave jewels
behind; and although one Piers, an outlandish man, hath run away with
many, she hath left all to the Prince [Charles] and none to the Queen of
Bohemia [her daughter Elizabeth]." In fact, so many of her jewels were
embezzled that scarcely a vestige remained, though Herrick produced
the models of them and swore to their delivery.[183] The poet Robert
Herrick, Sir William Herrick's nephew, was a jeweller-apprentice to his
uncle for several years, and his early training seems to have left a
strong impression on him, for his poems throughout betray a love and
appreciation for jewels. Among other jewellers whose names occur in the
State Papers, the following may be mentioned: Philip Jacobson, Arnold
Lulls, John Acton, and John Williams--a maker of gold neck-chains and
pendent medals.
[183] Nichols, _op. cit._, III, p. 548.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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