As far as the actual productions of the Jacobean jewellers are concerned
we meet with comparatively few examples; this want, however, is
supplied, to a certain extent, by means of a beautiful set of
contemporary drawings for jewellery preserved in the Victoria and Albert
Museum--the work of Arnold Lulls, a jeweller whose name occurs several
times in the royal accounts. In conjunction with Sir William Herrick,
Lulls supplied the King in 1605, as New Year's gifts for the Royal
Family, with jewels to the amount of £3,000. For a certain jewel of
diamonds, with pearls pendent, and two dozen buttons supplied by him
and Jacobson, and bestowed by His Majesty on the Queen at the Princess
Mary's christening the same year, Lulls was paid £1,550.[184]
[184] Devon (F.), _Issues of the Exchequer, James I_
(_Pell records_), p. 49.
Lulls' designs, drawn in water-colours in a parchment book, number
altogether forty-one. The majority, set with large table-cut stones and
hung with huge pear-shaped drops, are for pendent ornaments, for wearing
either on the neck-chain, or as earrings, or else upon the hat. Among
the drawings are two designs for a "rope of round pearls, great and
orient"--forty-seven in number--given to the Queen, and several designs
for the above-mentioned diamond and pearl ornament given her in 1605;
two drawings for Georges of the Order of the Garter given to Prince
Henry; and designs for a large balas ruby with pearl pendant mentioned
in an inventory of the Prince's jewels.[185] The remaining drawings
include four of jewelled aigrettes set with diamonds, rubies, emeralds,
and sapphires (Plate XXX, 1). These remarkable contemporary
illustrations of English jewellery reveal the change then beginning to
take place in the character of personal ornaments. Yet, though precious
stones are much in evidence, in almost every case their settings are
coloured, while the design of each jewel is completed with charming
scrollwork enriched with polychrome enamels.
[185] _Archæologia_, XV, p. 19.
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