The brilliant diamond and the love of its possession has captivated many to such a degree that it has often been the cause of intrigue and bloodshed; and national history has been influenced by its acquisition or retention. The pearl, however, though the most quiet of gems, has, in its own way, found favor in the sight of emperors and empresses, kings and queens, generals, nobles, and priests; and even savages have admired its quiet, stately dignity.

The following pages are devoted to a description of the various ornamental uses of the pearl in different times and countries. Naturally, many of the famous pearls in the following chapter, if considered purely as ornaments, might have found a place here.

The Egyptians of olden times do not appear to have used fine pearls, although they probably knew of them on account of the proximity of the Red Sea. M. J. de Morgan, the explorer, says: “In the tombs of Dashour I have never seen any; the only ones that I know of in Egyptian jewelry belong to the Ptolemaic period and are mounted in Greek style.”^[422]

This statement is confirmed by Dr. William F. Petrie, the well-known Egyptologist, who writes under date of July 26, 1907: “The pearl was often used in Roman jewelry in Egypt, but I do not know of any instance of it in pure Egyptian work. The Romans pierced it and hung it by gold wire on earrings. They also made glass, pearl-like beads, called luli by the modern natives. These beads are made by silvering glass beads and then flashing over them another coat of glass.”

Among specimens of the late Egyptian work we may note here some objects in the Louvre:

A pleasing decoration on gold wire is a necklace in the collection of the Egyptian Gallery. In this very small pearls are used as a connective decoration for the points of leaves, and to hold the leaves and ornaments is a gold wire which is secured by bending. This piece comprises 104 pearls, a greater number than is contained in any other object of antiquity found in Egypt.

An Egyptian pendant of unknown origin is also shown in this collection. At the lower end is a bull’s head, caparisoned, and the tip of each horn is fitted with a ball like the embolados toros of the Spanish bull-fights. The rein is double, and above this there are two rondelles of an unidentified material; then comes a rondelle of lapis lazuli, and after this a rondelle of gold. The whole is strung with twisted gold wire. The center stone is an hexagonal amethyst, evidently a crystal, the two faces of which had been polished and incised. One of these faces represents a priest with a staff of office, and the other a priest holding an incense-burner with the hieroglyph of the altar. With one hand he is offering the two sacrifices, the mineral and the vegetable; in the other he holds a garland of flowers or leaves. Above this is an Oriental pearl somewhat worn and abraded. All these are secured by a twisted gold wire, to which four tiny gold beads of graduated size are affixed at the top of the pendant.

There are six other pendants and earrings in the Egyptian Gallery, all of which contain pearls, and in most instances these pearls have been drilled and suspended by metal wires, unless they are used as an ornament facing outward. In four instances they are secured by a peg of gold.

The Assyrian and Persian bas-reliefs show that the sovereigns and great personages of those countries adorned themselves profusely with pearls. They wore them not only in their jewelry, but also on their garments and even in their beards!^[423] The coins of the Persian kings also bear testimony to the use of the gem in ancient Persia, since the sovereigns are represented wearing tiaras ornamented with triple rows of pearls.^[424] The same may be said of the imperial Roman diadem from the time of Caracalla (188–217 A.D.).

One of the most interesting of all ancient pearl necklaces,^[425] containing more pearls than any other that has been found, and in a better state of preservation, is the Susa necklace now in the Persian Gallery of the Louvre Museum. It consists of three rows, each containing 72 pearls, so that there are 216 in all. Ten gold bars, formed of three small disks, each about five millimeters in diameter, divide the necklace into nine equal sections; at each end there is a disk, ten millimeters in diameter, to which the three strands are secured. If there was any other setting, it has evidently disappeared, although it is quite possible that there may only have been a string at each end, as in the East Indian necklaces.

This ornament was found on the site of the ancient Susa or Shushan by M. J. de Morgan, February 10, 1901, in a bronze sarcophagus, which contained the skeleton of a woman, adorned with a great number of gold ornaments set and incrusted with precious stones. M. de Morgan gives circa 350 B.C. as the probable date of these objects. The pearls were much deteriorated. About 238 were found, but many of them crumbled away when they were touched. M. de Morgan considers that the necklace was of the type of the “dog-collar” of to-day, and he believes that it originally comprised from 400 to 500 pearls.

According to a personal communication from M. P. Cavvadias, of the Société Archéologique d’Athènes, there are no pearls on the ancient ornaments preserved in the National Museum at Athens. This is hardly surprising in view of the fact that the greater part of these ornaments belong to the archaic period of Greek art; that is to say, to a time when the pearl was evidently unknown to the Greeks.

The fact that we do not find more evidence of the use of pearls in Greece at a later period need cause no surprise, when we consider how many of the treasures of Greek art have disappeared in the course of more than twenty centuries. There can be no question that they were known and used as ornaments at an early time, as we can infer from the description of them by Theophrastus and later Greek authors.

Dr. Edward Robinson of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other authorities on Greek art and archæology, maintain that the Arethusa necklace, and other ornaments of that time, depicted on coins, etc., were meant to represent gold ornaments, as it is believed by many that pearls were unknown in Greece at that period.

One of the most interesting specimens showing the use of a pearl in ancient times is a very beautiful pearl pin from Paphos, on the Island of Cyprus, which is mounted with a large marine pearl, probably the largest antique pearl ever found, measuring fourteen millimeters in diameter, and weighing about 70 grains. This, unfortunately, has been very much abraded and worn away, although more than half of the pearl is still present. It is surmounted by a small fresh-water pearl, four millimeters in diameter, weighing about two grains and in a much better state of preservation. This unusually interesting example of prehistoric pearl is in the Greek and Roman department of the British Museum, and we are able to show it by the courtesy of the keeper of that department, Dr. Charles Hercules Read.

In excavations made last spring (1907), in the Hauran district in Syria, Azeez Khayat found a number of loose pearls which had formed a necklace. The tomb in which they were discovered was cut in the rock, and appeared to be of Roman origin. The pearls were still attached to the old bronze wire with which they had been strung. Mr. Khayat also mentions the finding of a pearl pin, and a single earring bearing a pearl, in a rock-tomb at Cæsarea, in Syria. Rock-cut tombs from ten to twelve feet in depth are frequently discovered, and they probably date from the beginning of the Christian era.

The habit was so common of using pearls as a base to throw up the brilliance of other gems, that we may, perhaps, believe even in Caligula’s slippers of pearls, with rubies and emeralds set upon them like flowers.

The Roman ladies had a special favor for pearls as earrings, and it was one of their consuming ambitions to possess exceptionally fine specimens for this purpose. They preferred pear-shaped pearls, and often wore two or three of them strung together. They jingled gently as they moved about—a fitting accompaniment, it may be said, to their graceful movements—and from this jingling the name crotalia, or “rattles,” was applied to them.

The description given by Pliny of the pearl ornaments of Lollia Paulina is the principal claim which the wife of Caligula has on our interest.

I myselfe have seen Lollia Paulina when she was dressed ... so beset and bedeckt all over with hemeraulds and pearles, disposed in rewes, ranks, and courses one by another; round about the attire of her head, her cawle, her borders, her perruke of hair, her bongrace and chaplet; at her ears pendant, about her neck in a carcanet, upon her wrest in bracelets, & on her fingers in rings; that she glittered and shone againe like the sun as she went. The value of these ornaments she esteemed and rated at forty million Sestertij^[426] and offered openly to prove it out of hand by her bookes of accounts and reckonings. Yet were not these jewels the gifts and presents of the prodigall prince her husband, but the goods and ornaments from her owne house, fallen to her by way of inheritance from her grandfather, which he had gotten together even by the robbing and spoiling of whole provinces. See what the issue and end was of those extortions and outrageous exactions of his: this was it. That M. Lollius, slandered and defamed for receiving bribes and presents of the kings in the East; and being out of favor with C. Cæsar, sonne of Augustus, and having lost his amitie, dranke a cup of poison, and prevented his judiciall triall: that forsooth his neece Lollia, all to be hanged with jewels of 400 hundred thousand Sestertij, should be seene glittering, and looked at of every man by candle-light all a supper time.^[427]

And the taste of the Roman ladies for pearls has perpetuated itself in Italy, though other of the luxurious habits which in their case accompanied it, have long since died out. The women of Florence even now are not content if they do not possess a necklet of pearls, and this generally forms the marriage portion of the middle-class women. It is thought, just as it was in ancient Rome, that this gives an air of respectability, and forms a sure protection from insult in the street or elsewhere.

One of the earliest illustrations showing a pearl earring is the one in the ear of Julia, the daughter of Titus, incised on a splendid aquamarine in the Bibliothèque Nationale. This gem was formerly in the Treasury of St. Denis, and is considered to belong to the Carlovingian period.^[428]

So large and heavy were the earrings worn in Rome that there were women known as auriculæ ornatrices, special doctresses whose sole occupation was the healing of ear tumors and of injured or infected ears. In a similar way, at the present day, we have the ear piercer, whose vocation, however, is rapidly becoming useless because of the ingenious modern devices for holding the pearls to unpierced ears; and we must consider this eminently desirable when we think of the ear-piercing outfits of the former jeweler, who never disinfected his apparatus, and when we recall the fact that it was always expected that the ear would swell, first, from the crude awl that was used, and, secondly, from the unsterilized instruments.

That the Romans believed in decorating the statues of their goddesses with pearls and dedicating them as offerings, is evidenced by the gift of Cleopatra’s pearl, which was cut in halves to make earrings for the Venus of the Pantheon; and by the buckler of British pearls for the statue of Venus Genetrix, given by Julius Cæsar. Quite a number of statues and busts of the Roman period, and some of an earlier time, have the ears pierced for the reception of earrings, and it is highly probable that pearls were used for this decoration. Among these are the busts of Pallas and Juno Lanuvina in the Vatican; that of Eirene, a marble copy of a work of Cephisdotus, in the Glyptothek, Munich, and the Venus de Medici in the Uffizi, Florence.

Pottier^[429] mentions several other Greek statues which show that earrings were used for their adornment; as, for example, the winged Victory of Archernos, in Delos; the head of one of the caryatids found at Delphi, a cast of which is in the Louvre; the archaic Aphrodite of the Villa Ludovisi; the Athena from the frieze of the temple at Ægina; the Venus of Milo, etc. In other instances the ornament was simply painted on the ear as is shown in the Aphrodite in white marble which has been found in Marseilles. This may also have been the case in the frieze at Olympia. The earrings used in these statues were usually metal disks entirely covering the lobe of the ear. We have, however, many representations of pearl earrings in the paintings at Pompeii, and on cameos and coins. These show us several of the types mentioned by Pliny and other authors; still, they are smaller and more unpretentious than we might expect in view of the well-known luxury of the Roman ladies in this respect. The greater part of the earrings represented show a pearl suspended from a single wire; there are some, however, with three pearls, one above the other,^[430] and a few bearing several pearls loosely hung together, answering to the description of the crotalia. Others, again, bear pear-shaped pearls or elenchi.^[431] It is a singular fact that scarcely any of the busts of Roman women are ornamented with earrings, but it is quite possible that the cause for this must be sought in the desire of the artist to dispense with unimportant details which might detract from the general effect he wished to produce. We may note, however, four female figures in the Gallerie des Empereurs in the Louvre Museum, with the ears pierced for the reception of earrings (Nos. 1195, 1202, 1230, and 1269).

Many numismatists, among them Dr. F. Louis Comparette,^[432] believe that the necklaces and earrings represented on Greek coins from the fifth century B.C. are intended to represent pearl ornaments, since the personages depicted are in all cases female divinities, goddesses, or nymphs, held in great veneration in the city where the coins were minted, and it is almost certain that the artist intended to portray the choicest and most beautiful of gems as an adornment for the beautiful head of the city’s patron.

The Syracusan coins, by Euvenetus, minted in the early part of the fifth century B.C., and bearing the head of Arethusa, seem to be the earliest coins showing a neck and ear ornament. This was later imitated on the Greek and Greco-Roman coins. A coin of Sulla shows a double necklace, one strand consisting of round beads and the other of pendants. The later coins almost always represent the goddesses with neck and ear ornaments. Some of the latter, however, resembling amphoræ, are neither round nor pear-shaped.

In view of the great fondness of the Romans for pearls, it is not surprising that many of these gems have been found in the excavations at Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Capodimonte. The collection of earrings preserved in the Naples Museum is especially noteworthy. Here we can see earrings consisting of a simple golden hoop, from which hangs a wire bearing a single pearl; others in which a cross-bar is attached to the hoop, and at each end of this bar is a loosely hung wire with a pearl at its extremity, this earring suggesting the crotalia mentioned by Pliny (see Fig. A); and still others wherein the pearls are strung directly on the hoop. The cross-bars are of various designs, sometimes entirely smooth, and again shaped like a cornice or a pediment; in other cases we have an earring with two pearls on a wire, then a pierced transparent stone, and beneath that, two pearls terminating the large drop. A few of the earrings are more elaborate, as, for example, one represented in Fig. B which was found in Pompeii, March 8, 1870. Here there is an emerald in the center, surrounded by gold rays, between which were set eight pearls, two of which are now missing; above is a small pearl. The single earring shown in Fig. D came from Herculaneum, and bears a circlet of thirteen pearls, alternating with rubies and other stones; beneath there is a link from which depends a pearl about seven and a fifth millimeters in diameter, and weighing nearly twelve grains. The fact that we know the latest date to which these pearls can be assigned, namely, 79 A.D., renders them peculiarly interesting and valuable from a historical point of view. Naturally, many of them are calcined or otherwise damaged, but others are fairly well preserved as to form, although the luster has departed from them. There are twenty-seven earrings in the collection, and the pearls number about one hundred. No great pearls were found.

In the Roman excavations, and in those of other early remains, many objects are found in which there may be a sapphire, an emerald, or several other stones, pierced, and pendant on a gold wire, with a blank space between, showing that something was there originally. This object has apparently decomposed and fallen away. We may reasonably suppose that it was either a pearl or a glass bead, and it is unlikely that glass would be used in connection with the more precious materials. This pearl or glass may have been affected by the organic acids or the acids resulting from the decomposition of the body with which the ornament was buried for a score of centuries.

Among the ancient jewels containing pearls which are preserved in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, we may mention a broken gold ring with a roughly cut turquoise and two pendants, each set with two pearls separated by a garnet. This object was found in southern Siberia during the reign of Peter the Great, and may belong to the second century before Christ. Also may be noted a pair of gold earrings, with an engraved six-rayed star, in the center of which a pearl is set, while below hang three pendant sticks, two of which have a pearl at the extremity. These earrings were found in 1892 in a tomb situated close to the site of the ancient town of Chersonesus, in the Crimea. As a coin of the Emperor Gordianus III (224–244 A.D.) was discovered in the same tomb, we may assign the earrings to the first half of the third century A.D.

Beside another pair of earrings, one of which is set with a pearl, and two pearl-headed pins, all from the neighborhood of Tiflis, in the Crimea, we may especially refer to an earring made of a plain, thick, golden wire, on which seven pearls are threaded; one of these occupies the center and the others are grouped around it. This earring was purchased in 1903 by the Russian Imperial Archæological Commission from a collector residing at Odessa; it is said to have been found on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Olbia, but we have no definite external or internal evidence to sustain this view.

We may also note the gold necklace and earrings^[433] containing pearls found near the site of Olbia during the reign of Napoleon III, and now in the collection of the Roman, Campana. These objects are especially interesting owing to the fact that the pearls are drilled and a gold cap is set on each side.

A pair of pearl earrings were found in a tomb on Mount Mithridates, near Kertch, in the Crimea. These earrings probably belong to the third or fourth century of our era. Of the four pearls which originally adorned the cross-bars, only one has been preserved. Another pair of earrings was discovered in the same place. It is probable that they were ornamented with pearls in a similar way, but the latter have entirely disappeared.

Gabriele Bremond states in his “Viaggi di Egitto,” Lib. I, c. 30, that it was a Mohammedan custom to embroider baldachins and carpets of precious metals with pearls. This use is especially typified in a baldachin of gold embroidered with pearls which is over the sepulcher of Mohammed at Mecca.^[434]

When the Mohammedans captured the Persian city Ctesiphon, in 637, they collected an immense booty. Each of the 60,000 soldiers received the value of 12,000 dirhems ($1560), a total of $93,600,000. Among the treasures sent to Caliph Omar (581–644), in Medina, was a crown, perhaps that of Khusrau I (499–579), which Tabari says was studded with 1000 pearls each as large as a bird’s egg.^[435] There was also a wonderful carpet 450 feet long and 90 broad, with a border of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and pearls, representing luxuriant foliage and beautiful flowers. Tabari states that it was called the “Winter Carpet,” because “the Persian kings used it in winter when there was no longer verdure or flowers, for whoever was seated on this carpet thought he looked out upon a garden or a green field.”^[436]

On the occasion of the marriage of the Caliph Al-Mamun (786–833) with the daughter of Hassan Sahal, all the grandees of Al-Mamun received slaves of both sexes as presents from the bride’s father. The preliminary negotiations were held at Fomal Saleh, and the road traversed by the bride and bridegroom to reach Bagdad, a distance of one hundred miles, was covered with mats of cloth of gold and silver. We are told that the bride wore on her head-dress a thousand pearls, each of which is said to have been of enormous value.^[437]

Describing the birthday festival of Kublai Khan (circa 1275 A.D.), Marco Polo says: “The Great Kaan dresses in the best of his robes, all wrought with beaten gold; and full 12,000 Barons and Knights on that day came forth dressed in robes of the same colour, and precisely like those of the Great Kaan, except that they are not so costly; but still they are all of the same colour as his, and are also of silk and gold. Every man so clothed has a girdle of gold; and this as well as the dress is given him by the Sovereign. And I will aver that there are some of these suits decked with so many pearls and precious stones that a single suit shall be worth full 10,000 golden bezants [about $25,000].”^[438]

In the Kan period, in China, the dead bodies of the emperors were embalmed and wrapped in a garment ornamented with pearls. They were then inclosed in a case of jade.^[439]

Speaking of the jewels of the King of Maabar, or what is now known as the Coromandel Coast, Marco Polo tells us: “It is a fact that the king goes as bare as the rest, only round his loins he has a piece of fine cloth and round his neck he has a necklace entirely of precious stones,—rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and the like, insomuch that this collar is of great value. He wears also hanging in front of his chest from the neck downwards, a fine silk thread strung with 104 large pearls and rubies of great price. The reason why he wears this cord with the 104 great pearls is (according to what they tell) that every day, morning and evening, he has to say 104 prayers to his idols. Such is their religion and custom; and thus did all the kings his ancestors before him, and they bequeathed the string of pearls to him that he should do the like.”^[440]

A favorite East Indian amulet is known as the “Nao-ratna” or “Nao-ratan,” and consists of “nine gems”: in former times the pearl, ruby, topaz, diamond, emerald, lapis lazuli, coral, sapphire, and a stone, not identified, called the gomeda. At the present time these stones are generally the coral, topaz, sapphire, ruby, flat diamond, cut diamond, emerald, hyacinth, and carbuncle. This talisman may suggest the Urim and Thummin or sacred oracle of the Jews, which was said to have been taken from Jerusalem in 615 A.D. by Khusrau II, the Sassanian Persian king.

The East Indian custom for persons of quality was to wear a pearl between two colored stones in each ear, that is, either between two rubies or two emeralds; and Tavernier noted, about 1670, that there was no person of any consideration in those regions who did not wear, in each ear, a pearl set between two colored stones. Another favorite ornament for women in India is a girdle elegantly embroidered, bearing a large pendant pearl in front, where it is fastened.^[441]

A necklace of twenty-seven pearls bears in India the name of nakshatra mālā, nakshatras (originally “stars”) being the name of the twenty-seven divisions of the Hindu zodiac.^[442]

In the Indian jewels often a small spot of enamel is fastened or melted on to a gold wire, and then one or several pearls are hung upon it; or beads of some gems, as sapphire, ruby, emerald, or even glass, may be added or alternated with pearls. Then the enamel stop-piece is turned down and the other end of the gold wire is twisted on to the setting, loosely, in such a manner as to swing freely. It is the effect of these dozens or even hundreds of swinging drops that add such grace and elegance to East Indian jewelry.

In China, such precious stones as the ruby, sapphire—both blue and yellow—the emerald, and the pink tourmaline, are not facetted, as with us, but are generally polished in conformity to the shape of the bead or other ornament, and never have a lathe-turned or cut appearance; they are either set in cabochon or as beads, rounded, oval, or elongated. All these forms, and the colors used by the Chinese, lend themselves well to combinations with pearls; and hence pearls are often found in Chinese jewelry, especially in those ornaments which are flexible and graceful, in which the pearls and gems are strung on wire and allowed to swing freely with a gentle tinkle when the wearer moves. This is not unlike the setting of such gems in ancient Roman times. An admirable example is shown and described in Bushell’s “Chinese Art” (Vol. II, plate 108, page 90). In this head-dress of a Manchu lady, there are combined with the pearls, jadeite, amethyst, amber, and coral, on a gilt silver openwork, with blue kingfisher feathers. This great cap of state is an admirable example of pure Chinese design and workmanship. The pendant strings of pearls are occasionally relieved by a bit of carved jade, carnelian or coral, especially the latter. Another example, the “cap of state” has silver-gilt openwork and immortelles (Taoist symbols), and is much enhanced in beauty by a decoration or inlay of plates of the beautiful blue feathers of the kingfisher, which are used so extensively and effectively in Chinese jewelry. The pearls are scattered at intervals over the cap, and ten strings of them hang from the sides of it. This is believed to be of Manchu origin by Dr. Stephen W. Bushell, the great Chinese scholar, to whom we are indebted for the use of the illustration. We are also told that young ladies in China wear a sort of crown constructed of pasteboard, covered with silk. This is adorned with pearls, diamonds, and other jewels.^[443]

The pearls on many Chinese ornaments were generally strung upon silk, often with half a dozen or a dozen seed-pearls above and below the large pearl, to hold the latter in place, and also to add a softness to the whole jewel. The end pendant pearl, even if pear-shaped, was usually pierced entirely through, and a wire that was worked through it was flattened out, and this gold head was again ornamented in some way. A Chinese pendant from the China-Japan war-loot offers an excellent illustration of this kind of pearl-setting. This was preserved in a double box of finely carved gold.

The rosaries containing 104 pearls, which are used to-day, were mentioned centuries ago by Marco Polo, and an excellent pearl string of this kind has been in the Russian Treasury at Moscow for over two hundred years. Dr. Stewart Culin, the archæologist, who has paid much attention to Chinese customs, informs us that the black and white counters made for use in games by the Chinese are called black and white pearls.

Dr. T. Nishikawa writes us in 1908 that pearls were used in Japan for ornamental purposes more than a thousand years ago. Large abalone pearls are found in images of Buddha made in 300 A.D. Fresh-water pearls, usually from Dipsas and Unio, were also used. A beautiful color-print was made by Hoku’ai of the first pearl, called “tide-jewel” by the Japanese.

Most interesting pearls are those in a brooch in the British Museum, which was discovered in 1839 while excavating a sewer opposite Ludgate Hill in Thames Street, at the depth of about nine feet, in a dark-colored artificial stratum of earth, unaccompanied by any remains that could aid in throwing light upon its history. It is four inches and a half in circumference, and is composed of a circular compartment an inch and a quarter in diameter, set with variegated enamel, representing a full-faced head and bust, with a crown on the head, and the drapery of a mantle, formed of threads of gold effectively arranged so as to mark the features of the face and the folds of the drapery; this is inclosed in a border of rich gold filigree work, set at equal distances with four pearls.^[444] Dr. Charles Roach Smith attributes this brooch to the time of King Alfred, and supposes it to have been executed in England by a foreign artist. He only ventures a conjecture that the head might be that of King Alfred.

Crowns, both ancient and modern, are richly ornamented with pearls. We shall treat of the crown of the Holy Roman Empire and of the imperial Austrian crown in the following chapter. One of the most interesting and ancient is the famous crown of Khusrau II (reigned 590–638), made in the latter part of the sixth century, which was brought to light by Shah Abbas after a thousand years of concealment in an obscure fortress among the mountains of Lauristan. It does not contain diamonds among its ornaments, but is incrusted with pearls and rubies.^[445]

From the representation given on the cup of Khusrau, the throne of the Sassanian Persian kings appears to have been as large as a couch; it was supported by four winged animals, whose model had been borrowed by the Sassanians from their ancestors, and it was covered with an embroidered stuff thrown over mattresses and cushions. If we may believe Tabari (“Chronicles,” trans. by Zotenberg, Vol. II, p. 304), this throne was of gold, enriched with precious stones, and surmounted by a crown of gold and pearls, so heavy that the sovereign could not wear it, and therefore had it suspended above his head.^[446]

One of the crowns in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg was discovered in 1864 in a tumulus near Novo-Tcherkask, with many other valuable objects, all of which had apparently been buried with some important personage. This crown resembles somewhat that of Reccesvinthus in the treasure of Guerrazar, although some portions of it seem to belong to the period of the Roman empire. The conjecture has been made that the crown may have been worn by a queen since it is decorated with a finely executed bust of a woman in amethyst. The crown itself is of pure gold, and was bordered with two rows of pearls, which have disappeared, leaving only the small disks to which they were attached; besides these, it was ornamented with a number of uncut precious stones. The date of this object cannot be exactly determined, although the consensus of opinion is that it belongs to about the third century after Christ. Possibly the bust and some other portions, which appear to be of Greco-Roman workmanship, are of this period, while the rest of the crown was executed one or two centuries later; it is about seven inches in diameter and two in height.^[447]

Toward the end of the year 1858 a French officer who lived in Spain, while making some excavations on a property he owned there, discovered fourteen small gold crowns. They were taken to the Spanish mint and are said to have been melted for bullion. New excavations on the same spot brought to light eight other crowns of considerable weight, of the finest workmanship, and incrusted with precious stones, pearls, etc. There is no doubt that these crowns were buried in the early years of the eighth century, when the Arabs, led by Tarik, invaded Spain and forced the Gothic dynasty to take refuge in the north of Europe. The importance of this discovery is very great, since it gives us positive evidence of the development of the goldsmith’s art in Spain at that early period. An inscription proves that one of the crowns was dedicated in the second half of the seventh century, and it is one of the few authentic memorials we possess of that epoch. In February, 1859, the eight crowns were purchased by the French government and placed in the Musée de Cluny. Two other crowns found in the same place were added in 1860, and complete the collection.

The largest of these crowns is that of the Gothic king, Reccesvinthus, who was King of Spain from 649 to 672. It is composed of a wide band of solid gold, ten centimeters wide and twenty-one centimeters in diameter (about four and eight inches respectively). This band, which opens by means of a hinge, is surrounded by two borders of gold set with the red stones of Caria, called “gemmae alabandenses,” and the band itself is studded with thirty large oriental sapphires of the greatest beauty. Thirty fine pearls of appropriate size alternate with the sapphires on a ground incrusted with the red stones above mentioned. From twenty-three small gold chains depend large letters in cloisonné, and also incrusted, forming the sentence: RECCESVINTHUS REX OFFERET. Each letter has a gold pendant with a pearl from which hangs a pear-shaped sapphire.

The crown is suspended from four chains, converging to a double floral ornament of solid gold, adorned with twelve sapphire pendants. This ornament, the leaves of which are open, is surmounted by a capital of rock crystal, then comes a ball of the same material, and the whole is terminated by the gold center to which the four chains are attached.

The cross, which is suspended underneath the crown by a gold chain, is remarkable for its elegance and its richness. It is of solid gold and is inlaid with six very fine sapphires and eight large pearls, each of which is mounted in relief with claws. At the back, the cross still bears the wire by which it was attached to the royal mantle. The inside of the crown is quite smooth; the outside is composed of elegant fleurettes in openwork, the leaves being filled with the same species of red carnelian mentioned above. There are thirty sapphires, all of the finest water, and a few of them show the natural facetted crystallization; the two principal ones, placed in the center of the band, are thirty millimeters in diameter. The pearls are of an exceptional size, and only a few of them have been injured by time. The total number on the crown, cross, and top ornament, is seventy, thirty of which are unusually large. The chains are each composed of five openwork ornaments with an enamel paste inlaid in the gold edge. A close examination of the crown shows that it had been worn before the king presented it to some church.

The royal Hungarian crown given to St. Stephen by the pope in the year 1000 A.D., when Hungary became an empire, is one of the most ancient crowns in existence. It contains 320 pearls and was procured in Byzantium. It was pledged to the emperor, Frederick IV, by Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, probably about 1440.

In the cathedral of Prague (the metropolitan church of St. Vitus) there may be seen the crown which was made by the order of Charles IV (1378) out of four pounds, ten and a quarter ounces of gold. It is adorned with twenty-nine pearls, forty-seven rubies, twenty sapphires, and twenty-five emeralds. The value of the gold and gems was estimated at $10,000 in 1898, which is probably less than it would be worth to-day. The sacred crown worn by St. Wenceslaus was inserted within the crown of Charles IV at the instance of Queen Blanca. The golden scepter and the golden orb are of very beautiful workmanship. The scepter has six rubies, eight sapphires, and thirty-one pearls. There may also be seen in the treasury a gilded monstrance, in the style of the Renaissance, studded with pearls and precious stones, a gift of the princely family of Schwarzenberg. Within the same cathedral, in the tabernacle of the chapel of St. Ludmilla, wife of the first Duke of Bohemia, is the head of that saint, bearing a crown studded with 1800 pearls.^[448]

The crown of Vladimir, with its singular and thoroughly Russian form, is preserved in the treasury of the Kremlin at Moscow, and has been used at the coronation of all the Russian emperors. It has borne the name of the crown or cap of Monomachus from the reign of Ivan IV. Although, to judge from this designation, the crown was probably executed in the twelfth or thirteenth century, there is a legend to the effect that it was sent, in 988, from Byzantium by the ruler as a gift to St. Vladimir. It is executed in filigree work, and is surmounted by a plain cross with four pearls at the extremities; between these pearls are set a topaz, a sapphire, and a ruby. The crown itself is ornamented with four emeralds, four rubies, and twenty-five pearls from Ormus, set in gold. The cap has a bordering of sable fur, and is lined with red satin. (See Maskell, “Russian Art,” London, 1884, p. 125.)

The imperial state crown of her Majesty Queen Victoria, was made in the year 1838 by Messrs. Rondell and Bridge, with jewels taken from old crowns, and others furnished by command of her Majesty. It consisted of diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, set in silver and gold. It had a crimson velvet cap with ermine border, and was lined with white silk. Its gross weight was thirty-nine ounces five pennyweights troy. The lower part of the band above the ermine border consisted of a row of 129 pearls, and the upper part of a row of 112 pearls; between these rows, in the front of the crown, was a large sapphire (partly drilled) purchased for the crown by his Majesty George IV. In the front of the crown, and in the center of a diamond Maltese cross, was the famous ruby said to have been given to Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), by Don Pedro, King of Castile, after the battle of Nájera, near Vittoria, 1367 A.D. This ruby was worn in the helmet of Henry V at the battle of Agincourt, 1415 A.D. It was pierced quite through, after the eastern custom, the upper part of the piercing being filled up by a small ruby. From the Maltese cross issued four imperial arches composed of oak leaves and acorns, thirty-two pearls forming the acorns. From the upper part of the arches were suspended four large pendant, pear-shaped pearls with rose diamond cups.^[449] Writing in 1850, Barbot, the French jeweler, placed the value of this crown at $600,000.

The crown of St. Edward, the official crown of England, is used at each coronation.^[450] The original crown of this name was destroyed by the republicans in 1649, but at the time of the coronation of Charles II, another crown was made to take its place, under the direction of Sir Robert Viner. As far as can be known, this crown was an exact copy of the older one, which was worn by Edward the Confessor, and perhaps even by King Alfred. The crown in use at present is of gold, richly studded with pearls and precious stones of various kinds: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. There is a mound of gold on top, and on this a cross of gold ornamented with very large oval pearls, one attached to the top and the two others pendant from the ends of the cross. The present arrangement of the jewels cannot date back earlier than 1689, as the crown was found to be despoiled of them at the time of the accession of William and Mary. Those now in the crown are acknowledged to be inferior to the former ones.

The orb or mound which is placed in the king’s hand immediately after his coronation, is a ball of gold, six inches in diameter, surrounded by a band of the same metal ornamented with roses of diamonds set around other precious stones, and bordered with pearls. It is surmounted by a cross, embellished with four larger pearls at the angles near its center, and three others at the ends. The orb, including the cross, is eleven inches high, and it is figured on the coins of many of the English kings, who are represented holding it in their left hands.

The regalia of Scotland,^[451] consisting of the crown, scepter, and sword of state, are preserved in the castle of Edinburgh. It is not certainly known at what time this crown was executed. At the coronation of Robert Bruce (1274–1329) a simple circlet of gold was used; this fell into the hands of the English after the battle of Methven in 1306. In 1307 Edward I issued a pardon at the request of his “beloved Queen Margarate,” to a certain Galfredus de Coigniers, who was said to have concealed and kept “a certain coronet of gold with which Robert the Bruce, enemy and rebel of the King, had caused himself to be crowned in our own Kingdom of Scotland.”