jewellery

Edward IV – A King of Bling – His Wardrobe Accounts

Nov 5, 2020

art, culture, sources

Anne Sutton, Domenico Mancini, Edward IV, fashion, helmets, Henry VII, jewellery, John Vandelft, parsimony, Privy Purse, Richard III, Sharon Turner, Wardrobe accounts

Reblogged from Edward IV – A King of Bling’s Wardrobe Accounts The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York and The Wardrobe Accounts of Edward the Fourth Edited by Nicolas Harris Nicolas Esq As demonstrated by my earlier posts on the subject I enjoy nothing more than a delve around privy purse/wardrobe expenses. This…
Edwardtide—a Celebration of Edward the Confessor, Saint and King….

Oct 15, 2020

anniversaries, buildings, culture, religion

Bayeux Tapestry, Bishop Gundulf, Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor, Edith of Scotland, Epiphany, Henry I, Henry II, Henry III, High Altar, House of Wessex, jewellery, Life of St. Edward the Confessor, martyrs, Octave of St. Edward, pilgrim’s ring, Richard II, royal saints, St. Edward the Confessor, Thomas Becket, Westminster Abbey, Wilton Diptych

“….Remembering St Edward, 13th-18th October 2020….During Edwardtide, we celebrate the life of St Edward the Confessor, King of England 1042–1066 and the re-founder of Westminster Abbey. St Edward was canonised in 1161, and to this day, pilgrims come to pray at his shrine…” The above extract is from the website of Westminster Abbey (specifically from this…
A late mediaeval “decade ring”

Aug 5, 2020

art, buildings, religion

artefacts, Colchester Castle, decade rings, Epping Forest Museum, jewellery, religious devotion

Here is a guest post on the Colchester and Ipswich Museums website, by Jill Holmen, Collections Manager of Epping Forest Museum. It depicts a “decade” ring, used for a form of devotion in ten stages and dates from 25 years either side of 1500, recently borrowed by Colchester Castle Museum and was on display there…
‘I saw something shining…’ Metal Detecting Finds..

Apr 16, 2020

archaeology, Science

Alfred the Great, Anglo-Saxons, Bedale Hoard, Cheshire, coins, crime, helmets, House of Wessex, jewellery, Lichfield, Lincolnshire, metal detecting, Middleham Jewel, Norfolk, Staffordshire Hoard, Vikings, Wales, York Museum, Yorkshire Museum

The Staffordshire Hoard. One of the biggest hoard of Anglo Saxon artefacts every discovered. See more of this hoard below.. A story has broken of four ‘metal detectorists’ who have been convicted of stealing a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins and jewellery worth 3 million pounds, most of which is, tragically, still missing. You can tell from the pictures of…
Medieval jewels have been found, but my emerald has gone forever….

Feb 8, 2020

archaeology, art, battles

Battle of Bosworth, Green Hammerton Ring, Harrogate Museum, jewellery, metal detecting, Middleham Jewel, rings, Yorkshire, Yorkshire Post

This illustration is from the Yorkshire Post and has been chosen to illustrate the sort of wonderful finds that have been made by detectorists. There has been a positive rash of such discoveries, and each time I am reminded again of how dreadful it must have been, way back when, to lose something as valuable…
Did Richard III wear the Black Prince’s Ruby at Bosworth….?

Oct 10, 2019

anniversaries, art, battles, heraldry

Anne Neville, Azincourt, Battle of Bosworth, Black Prince’s Ruby, Edward IV, Edward of Middleham, Edward the Black Prince, Graham Turner, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Imperial State Crown, jewellery, Richard II, Richard III

“….It is said that Henry V wore it [the Black Prince’s Ruby] in his jewel-encrusted helmet at the battle of Agincourt, and Richard III did also at the battle of Bosworth….” I found the above sentence in a post on the British Medieval History Facebook group. How very intriguing. It’s something I had never heard…
A HATPIN & A MYSTERY

Sep 4, 2019

archaeology, art, heraldry

brooches, Buckingham rebellion, Edward IV, Gainsborough Hall. Sun in Splendour, Grantham, Henry VII, jewellery, Lincolnshire, white boar, white rose

Edward IV’S Hatpin? A fabulous archaeological find has turned up in a Lincolnshire fields–a beautiful golden hatpin shaped like the Sun in Splendour and bearing an intact amethyst stone. An extremely high status object without a doubt and estimated at £15,000. But whose was it? Unfortunately the article accompanying the find is full of…
It is so good to clear this matter up

Apr 19, 2019

anniversaries, art, Events, genealogy

Empresses of France, France, inaccuracy, jewellery, Marie Antoinette, Marie Therese, Queens of France, tautology

Here is a piece about a pearl and diamond pendant, formerly owned by Marie Antoinette and was sold recently in Geneva. Anyone who heard BBC news coverage during the week of this event may well have learned two things: 1) “She ordered it before she was executed.” Really? How do you order a pendant posthumously…
The Regale of France ruby: from a French king to Becket’s tomb to Henry VIII….and then lost.

Dec 21, 2018

anniversaries, art, buildings

Canterbury Cathedral, Dissolution of the Monasteries, France, George IV, Henry VIII, jewellery, Louis VII, The Regale of France, Thomas Becket

Whatever the truth about this amazing ruby, it must be (still is?) one heck of a precious stone. It belonged to a French king, and leapt from his ring to attach itself to the tomb of Thomas Becket, who was born 900 years ago today, in Canterbury. The ruby then ended up belonging to Henry…
Was the lost coronet/crown of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, really the lost crown of King Arthur. . .?

Dec 11, 2018

anniversaries, battles, buildings

Arthur, Builth Wells, Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor, crown jewels, crowns, Cymer Abbey, Edward I, Henry III, jewellery, Llewellyn the Last, Oliver Cromwell, Orewin Bridge, Princes of Wales, Talaith Llewellyn, Tower of London, Wales, Westminster Abbey

The above illustration is of the British Crown Jewels as we know them now, but there were predecessors, long gone now, thanks to the efforts of Oliver Cromwell, who had no truck with such baubles. We are inclined to forget that there was a Welsh crown too, until it was seized by Edward I in…