style and fashion

Chapter 2
STYLE AND
FASHION
Changing styles of dress affected jewellery design. This chapter
explores what type of jewellery was worn and its fashion context.
After a general survey of jewellery worn by fashionable men and
women and by ecclesiastics, the discussion focuses on jewellery
particular to different parts of the body.
Detail of Plate 50
Margaret of York (1446–1503)
Oil on panel
Flanders, anon., c.1468–70
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Dept des
Peintures, inv. RF 1938-17
Medieval Jewellery
Cultural Contexts
117 Group of badges (from left
to right)
Badge with the royal arms of
England before 1340
Copper alloy with champlevé
enamel, traces of gilding
England, c.1300–40
V&A: M.315–1921
Badge with the arms of the
Visconti or Sforza families
118 Badge with the arms
of Bishop Angelo Acciaiuoli
Copper alloy, gilt, with
champlevé enamel
Italy, perhaps Florence,
c.1328–57
V&A: 8991–1863
116 Maximilian, Duke of Austria
Stained glass from the Chapel
of the Holy Blood, Bruges
Flanders, c.1496
V&A: C.438–1918
102
Copper, gilt with champlevé
enamel
Italy, around 1350–1400
119 Joan Nevill, Countess of Arundel
Limestone effigy, detail of the head, with original colours
England, c.1462
Arundel Castle, Fitzalan chapel
V&A : M 73-1923
Badge with the arms of Warenne
Copper alloy with champlevé
enamel
England, c.1300–50
V&A: M.13–1989
effigy of the fashionably dressed Joan Nevill, Countess
of Arundel (d. c.1462) ( p lat e 1 19 ). Her Yorkist necklace
has been personalized to include her own family badge,
sprigs of oak leaves.
Badges instantly proclaimed identity and status, and
were worn by retainers, servants and even the horses of a
great lord. The motifs used on them often derived from
a lord’s coat of arms. These livery badges identified the
wearer as a person attached to the retinue of a magnate
or the king, and thus entitled to their protection.
Wealthy clergy also used coats of arms to proclaim their
status, just like other powerful statesmen, as exemplified
by the badge of Bishop Angelo Acciaiuoli ( pl ate 11 8) ,
who was successively Bishop of Aquila in 1328, of
Florence in 1342–55 and of Monte Cassino in 1355–7.
Bishop Angelo has added a bishop’s mitre to the
Acciaiuoli family arms. The complex shape of this badge
makes its exact function uncertain – it might have been
attached to a retainer’s belt or to a horse harness.
Horses were central to medieval society, essential for
fighting wars, for transport and for such leisure activities
as hawking and hunting. Their saddles and harness were
often richly decorated, with embroidery and metalwork,
as shown on the Devonshire hunting tapestries. Heraldic
pendants might be attached either to the leather breast
strap or the head harness of the horse. Two small
English badges could have been used either by an
attendant or to decorate a horse harness. Three lions on
a red ground represent the royal arms ( p la te 1 17 ), as
used before 1340. The blue and originally gilt chequer
pattern represents the Warenne family arms ( p la te 1 17 ).
On a smaller scale, but of great legal significance,
badges and coats of arms might be used to decorate seal
matrices. These were pressed onto softened beeswax and
the resultant seal impressions were attached to written
documents to authenticate them, just as a signature
functions today. Matrices were often inscribed, sometimes
with an owner’s name or a motto. A personal seal matrix
103
Medieval Jewellery
Style and Fashion
66 Case for a girdle-book, with
sliding top: front and back view
Silver gilt, with translucent
enamel, showing an episode
from the romance of Sir Enyas
and the Wodewose
England or France, c.1325
V&A: 218–1874
classes needed to be robust, and were made of leather
with sturdy copper or iron buckles and chapes; although
these did not follow high fashion, clear stylistic
variations are discernible over time.
At different periods, fashionable girdles varied in
their width, overall length and exactly where they were
worn. It is often difficult to tell from the few surviving
luxury girdles whether they were made for a man or a
woman. In general, from the eleventh to the fourteenth
century, girdles were long and narrow and were worn
around the waist. Excessively long and elaborately
ornamented girdles seem to have become fashionable
66
during the fourteenth century, combining fine textiles
with silver-gilt or enamel fittings. More rarely, girdles
were made entirely of precious metal, consisting of
plaques curved to fit the outline of the body and
hinged together. Two early fourteenth-century plaques
( p la te 6 7) from a girdle of this sort, engraved and once
enamelled, show typical scenes from a medieval
romance, depicting knights, musicians, and ladies of the
court. Girdles occasionally include loving inscriptions,
which is a reflection of their role in the courtship rituals
of both Jewish and Christian communities (see page 97),
where the exchange of girdles played a part.
67
Medieval Jewellery
4 Fishpool hoard: general view
Gold, enamel and precious
stones
England and France, c.1400–60
London, British Museum,
PE 1967.12-8.1-9
5 (right) Chalcis treasure:
general view
Silver, some gilt with niello and
enamel
Italy, possibly Venice, and
Greece, c.1350–1460
London, British Museum,
PE AF 2809 etc.
pieces, which were pawned and melted down to pay his
soldiers’ wages.
The early medieval pre-Christian tradition of burying
the dead with their jewellery has, incidentally, preserved
much for us to see today. Christianity gradually
discontinued these practices and, as a result, the number
of medieval jewels actually to have survived, dating from
c.1000 onwards, is random and relatively small, in
contrast to the jewelled magnificence described by many
medieval writers and depicted by artists. Numerous
existing medieval jewels were lost or hidden for safety by
their medieval owners and have subsequently been
excavated or discovered by chance.
Jewellery made of the base metals (copper and
pewter) is surprisingly rare today, given that it was made
in great quantities for the less well off. This is because
10
such pieces were less likely to be treasured either as
bankable wealth or as heirlooms and, when they became
unfashionable, their metal would simply have been
melted down and remade, and thus continually recycled.
Hoards of eleventh- and twelfth-century pewter
jewellery have been found in the course of urban
excavations in recent decades in York, Dublin and
London, and elsewhere in Europe. These show styles of
jewellery that imitated those found in precious metals, as
seen in the eleventh- to twelfth-century collection of
brooches ( pl at e 3 ), pins and beads found in London’s
Cheapside. This district has for centuries been at the
centre of the metalworking crafts, and the hoard
includes some items that are only partly finished,
showing it to be the stock of a working jeweller.
Medieval hoards of silver and gold jewellery and
coins are known from all over Europe. In France and
Germany numerous treasures have been found dating
from around 1340–50, which can therefore be linked
with the terrible plague known as the Black Death,
which afflicted all of Europe at that time. Fifteenthcentury treasure hoards such as that found at Fishpool,
Nottinghamshire ( pl ate 4) in England, entirely made of
gold, or the one found at Chalcis ( p lat e 5 ) in Cyprus,
almost entirely made of silver, were hidden in time of
war by their unknown owners, and may represent jewels
owned by more than one person.
The Fishpool gold hoard includes gem-set jewels and
pieces decorated with engraving or enamel, in styles
typical of northern Europe, especially France and
England. The hoard includes 1,237 gold coins, which
indicate that it was buried early in 1464, during the
Wars of the Roses. Its richness shows that its owners
were exceptionally wealthy, perhaps merchants or
members of the nobility caught up in the fighting.
The Chalcis hoard has also been preserved because of
conflict. When threatened by invasion from the Turks in
1470, the rich Venetian inhabitants of Chalcis on the
Greek island of Euboea in the Mediterranean hid their
valuables in the castle. Found in the nineteenth century,
the Chalcis jewels are today divided between London’s
British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
These silver jewels, rich in brooches, buttons, belts and
rings, reflect the riches garnered by trade with Venice
and Byzantium. Many are gem-set or engraved, or
decorated with niello (see page 00), filigree or enamel,
much of it decoration that was typical of southern
Europe and was probably made in Venice.
11
Medieval Jewellery
BUYING AND
COMMISSIONING JEWELLERY
Both royalty and the nobility usually had a number of
favourite goldsmiths, each making jewellery as well as
vessels for dining, although some craftsmen specialized
in one or the other. However, these goldsmiths were
independent and did not live at court, or generally in a
noble household, but rather had their workshops and
homes elsewhere and were free to supply other
customers. In London the goldsmiths’ quarter centred
upon Foster Lane, off Cheapside, near St Paul’s
Cathedral. Paris was the largest centre of goldsmiths and
jewellers north of the Alps throughout the Middle Ages,
and here the goldsmiths were located in the area around
Notre-Dame and the nearby bridge across the Seine, le
pont des orfèvres (‘the bridge of goldsmiths’). Bruges,
Florence, Siena, Venice, Nuremberg and Prague were
also significant centres.
Goldsmiths would work to special commissions, as
well as selling small items at retail, such as the rings or
brooches seen displayed in the Petrus Christus painting
of St Eloi ( p la te 6), which shows a young couple inside
a shop full of jewellery and gems. This painting of
c.1449 gives a fascinating glimpse of the stock of a
22
Workmanship and Acquisitions
16 Miniature of a jewellery shop from a Book of Hours
Parchment
Flanders, c.1490
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, inv. W 439, f.64
goldsmith-cum-jeweller. Behind the saint, three gem-set
jewels, a string of rosary beads, gem-set finger-rings in a
box and a fancy belt buckle are visible. Apart from these
ready-made jewels, we also see loose gems, a pile of
pearls and a branch of coral and crystal, all waiting to be
made up into a special commission. Drapers’ shops,
which principally sold fine fabrics, often also sold
accessories such as belts embellished with metal and
enamel, and ready-made small jewels, rings and
brooches. Such a shop seems to be depicted in the
manuscript illustrated above ( p la te 16 ). The ladies hold
wands, perhaps to point out their preferred jewels to the
shopkeeper, who could use his own wand deftly to
unhook the selected items.
Jewels played a significant role in medieval society,
where the giving of valuable gifts (often jewellery) was
essential as a way of reinforcing diplomatic alliances and
strategic friendships, as well as being a sign of affection
and love. It is interesting to find that the great French
princely collector Jean, Duc de Berry gave valuable
jewels not just to his allies, but also to several of his
artists: a diamond ring to Milet le Cavelier, a stained-
17 Brooch showing a camel
Gold, enamel, sapphire and pearls
France, England or Germany,
c.1400–20
Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello
glass artist; a diamond to the wife of a favourite painter,
Michelet Saumon; and many jewels to the great
manuscript illuminator, Pol de Limbourg.
The New Year was a traditional time for gift-giving.
Monarchs and grandees habitually gave out large
numbers of New Year gifts made of gold and silver –
frequently jewellery – the value of each being carefully
graded to the rank of the recipient. Although none of
the jewels survive, great lists of them do, such as those
given out by King Richard II of England in the 1390s,
when many of his dozens of courtiers and friends
received New Year presents in the form of small gold
and enamel jewels, all of a different design, some
perhaps similar to the camel brooch ( p lat e 1 7) now in
Florence. But the only surviving medieval jewels that can
certainly be identified as New Year gifts are gold rings,
23
Medieval Jewellery
GEMS: THEIR SOURCES
AND MEANINGS
Judging from the medieval jewellery that survives, the
most popular precious stones were sapphires, garnets,
rubies, amethysts, rock crystal and, to a lesser extent,
diamonds. A range of other stones was also used,
including turquoises and emeralds ( p la te 2 4) , as well as
imitation gems. Large and small pearls were very
popular and are frequently mentioned in contemporary
descriptions, but generally have not survived, because
they disintegrate when buried in the earth for long.
Most of the precious stones used in medieval jewellery
came from countries far distant from Europe and were
extremely valuable. Size, lustrous colour and ‘virtue’
principally determined the cost of a gem, for gems
were not elaborately cut for most of this period.
Comparatively few surviving medieval gems have been
investigated mineralogically, but it is clear that the terms
used in medieval sources are often inconsistent or vague,
so that certainty of identification is difficult. For
instance, the term adamas or adamant, which often
means a diamond, sometimes does not.
Workmanship and Acquisitions
The Italian ports of Venice and Genoa dominated the
trade routes to Byzantium (modern Istanbul) and the
East, source of the most precious gems. Red, blue and
green gems seem to have been especially sought-after.
Rubies comprised two sorts – mineralogically very
different stones, but similar enough in appearance to
be easily confused. The paler pinkish-red ‘balas’ or
spinel ruby ( p la te 2 7) came from Afghanistan and was
less valuable; the deep-red corundum ruby, almost as
hard as a diamond, came from Burma, Sri Lanka and
India and was more rarely used. Also from Sri Lanka
came sapphires ( p lat e 2 5), from Persia and Tibet came
turquoises ( pl ate 28 ), and from India came emeralds
and diamonds. Garnets ( p la te 26 ) and opals were
obtained from eastern Europe, amethysts from
Germany, coral and pearls from Italy and other
Mediterranean countries, and amber, jet, crystal and
tiny mussel pearls from northern Europe.
Gems have always been considered natural talismans
because of their brilliance of colour or hardness. In the
Middle Ages and beyond, precious stones were believed
to possess many potent qualities, both powerfully
medicinal and magical. Encyclopaedic texts called
24 Emerald, polished
Set into a gold ring
Europe, c.1400–1500
V&A: 652–1871
25 Blue sapphire surrounded by
purple sapphires, polished
Set into a gold ring
England, c.1250–1300
26 Garnet, polished
Set into a gold ring
England or France, c.1300
V&A: M.288–1962
V&A: M.7–1929
22 (far left) Half a natural
diamond crystal, set into a
gold ring
Europe, c.1400
V&A: M.188–1975
23 (left) A polished cabochon
sapphire, held in a claw setting
in a gold ring
England or France,
c. 1250-1300
V&A: M 180-1975
27 Spinel ruby, polished and set
into a gold thumb ring
England, c.1450
28 Turquoise, polished
Set into a gold ring
England or France, c.1400–50
V&A: M 253-1921
V&A: M.77–1969
29
Style and Fashion
52 (left) Charles the Bold’s
hat, with two of his jewels,
the White Rose and the
Three Brothers
The ducal hat was sheathed
in gold, adorned with pearls,
rubies and diamonds, seized
by the Swiss in 1477
Paint on paper
South Germany, c.1545
Basle, Historisches Museum,
inv. 2007.511
53 (opposite, left) Mary of
Burgundy (1457–82)
Stained glass, from the
Chapel of the Holy Blood,
Bruges
Flanders, c.1496
V&A: C.439–1918
the necklace incorporates her initials with those of her
husband, Charles, Duke of Burgundy. The white and
red roses allude to her own family; she was an English
princess, sister of the Yorkist king Edward IV. She is
also likely to have owned the ‘White Rose jewel’ ( p la te
52 ), the badge of the Yorkists, whose appearance has
been preserved in a contemporary watercolour. Jewels
attached to necklaces might be gem-set, as worn by
Queen Elizabeth Woodville ( plat e 34) and Mary of
Burgundy ( p late 53 ). The diamond-shaped gold jewel
that Mary wears, edged with pearls, has a central cross,
perhaps indicating the presence of a relic inside. It
greatly resembles in shape a rare surviving pendant, the
Middleham jewel ( plat e 54) of c.1450, which was found
54 (opposite, right)
Middleham reliquary pendant
Gold, engraved, formerly
enamelled, sapphire
England, London?, c.1450
York, Yorkshire Museum
55