Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2011
While few surviving jewels can be identified with any certainty as English work of the sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries, much descriptive evidence exists in the form of inventories and lists of gifts of jewels and plate exchanged between the sovereign and the courtiers each year on New Year's Day. A further fruitful source of information lies in the many contemporary portraits, those of ladies usually showing them with a lavish display of jewellery. Such jewels cannot, however, be claimed as certainly of English make; jewellery was an article of international commerce and much was imported.
1 Nichols, J., The Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, III (London, 1823).Google Scholar
2 Collins, A. J., Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth, I (London, 1955). P. 160.Google Scholar
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4 Ibid., p. 445.
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6 Ibid., p. 105.
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10 S.P.Dom. James I, ix, p. 121. They were called Stephen le Gouch and Peter James Jr.
11 Ibid., x, p. 507.
12 Ibid., p. 566.
13 Inv. No. D6 1896.
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17 Ibid., pt. 3, p. 9. By this time Lulls had eight servants in his employ.
18 Ibid., p. 63.
19 Ibid., p. 98.
20 Ibid., p. 109.
21 Ibid., p. 150. He was then described as one of the Cooplieder (merchants).
22 Proc. Hug. Soc. xviii (1911), 25.Google Scholar
23 Ibid., x, pt. 3 (1907), 184. He was not resident in London at the time of this enquiry.
24 P.R.O., STAC.8/25/23.
25 S.P.Dom. James I, x, p. 101. The total of fines imposed amounted to £140,000.
26 Proc. Hug. Soc. x, pt. 3 (1907), 237.Google Scholar
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29 Ibid., p. 278.
30 S.P.Dom. Elizabeth I, VI, pp. 149–50.
31 S.P.Dom. James I, VIII, p. 80. It was perhaps this jewel to which Sir Dudley Carleton was referring in his letter of 15th January 1603/4 (S.P. 14/6, no. 21), when he reported that James I was to buy a jewel worth £40,000 from Peter Van Lore. There are numerous other references to Peter Van Lore. On 27th November 1604 a warrant was issued for payment of £6,245. 13s. 11d. due to Van Lore and another foreign jeweller, Martin Van Somer. On 6th January 1604/5 Van Lore received payment for jewels given by the King to the Queen and to Princess Elizabeth; on 6th April 1605 another payment of £900 to Van Lore for jewels was authorized, while on 12th February 1610 he was paid for services in another field, namely rent for a house in Paris occupied by the British ambassador. Like other jewellers, Van Lore had to wait for his money. A warrant of 12th October 1614 provided for payment to Peter Van Lore of £2,000 for jewels delivered at Christmas last for the King's use. These were presumably intended for New Year's gifts.
32 S.P.Dom. James I, VIII, p. 148.
33 Ibid., p. 448.
34 Ibid., X, p. 308, reported in a letter from John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton. It was on this occasion that Peter Van Lore was knighted. See also McClure, N. E. (ed.), Letters of John Chamberlain, Memoirs of the American Phil. Soc. xii (1939), 40.Google Scholar
35 P.R.O., Probate, Meade, 4th April 1618.
36 S.P.Dom. James I, x, p. 503, reported in a letter from Chamberlain to Carleton.
37 Ibid., p. 507.
38 S.P.Dom. Charles I, 1, p. 546.
39 S.P.Dom. Charles I, XIII, p. 540.
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46 Ibid., p. 596.
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51 Ibid., p. 338.
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53 S.P.Dom. James I, VIII, p. 574.
54 Ibid., IX, p. 171, repeated in a letter from John Finar to Sir Dudley Carleton.
55 Ibid., p. 375.
56 Ibid., p. 280.
57 Ibid., p. 356.
58 This Nicolas Russell was presumably identical with the Niçaise Roussel whose designs for grotesques were published in 1623 by John Overton. The book was dedicated to George Heriot. Roussel arrived in England about 1573; he was born in Bruges and worshipped at the Dutch Church like Arnold Lulls. For his designs see Oman, C. C., Engraved English Silver (London, 1978), p. 46.Google Scholar
59 Nichols, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 554.
60 Sir John Spilman was constantly trying to obtain payment of sums due to him. Thus, Cal.S.P.Dom., IX, p. 46, he wrote on 20th June 1611 to the Earl of Salisbury seeking payment of moneys due for two years past, complaining that he had long paid interest on the pearls that were the Queen's last New Year's gift from the King. On 23rd November of the same year he asked for repayment of £3,000 he had lent to the Queen and for his share of the £9,000 cost of the Prince of Wales's sword.
61 S.P.Dom. James I, XI, p. 62, reported in a letter from Chamberlain to Carleton.
62 Ibid., p. 46, reported in a letter from Thomas Locke to Carleton.
63 Ibid., p. 49, reported in a letter from Chamberlain to Carleton. Also Nichols, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 549.
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69 Auerbach, E., Nicholas Hilliard (London, 1961), pl. 320.Google Scholar
70 Ibid., pl. 160.
71 Strong, op. cit. (n. 66), p. 249.
72 Evans, op. cit. (n. 14), pl. 142.
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75 For an account of these jewels, ibid., p. 86.
76 For the relationship between Cletscher and the Ghisberti family, ibid., p 82,