Inventory of Elizabeth I of England


The Inventory of Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1574 was published from manuscripts by Arthur Jefferies Collins in 1955. The published inventory describes jewels and silver-plate belonging to Elizabeth I of England with detailed references to other source material.

Introduction

The sources used by Collins were British Library Harley MS 1560 and Stowe MS 555. The manuscripts represent the "Quenis Majesties juelles plate and other stuff" in 1574 and additions by gift or purchase over the next 20 years which were kept in the Jewel House at the Tower of London. Collins also collated information from other books and manuscripts to cross-reference information about the objects listed. Gifts of plate to the queen passed from the Privy Chamber to the Jewel House. Some pieces were melted down and others were given as diplomatic gifts. When the queen travelled, the towns she visited often gave her gifts of silver-gilt cups.
In 1574 the office of the Jewel House was located in a two-storey building on the south side of the White Tower. This contained the records of the jewels and packing materials for sending jewels to court. The 1574 inventory was made John Astley, Master and Treasurer of the Jewel House. The Master had an annual salary of £50 and was able to exact payments from goldsmiths appointed to work for the Jewel House, and those who transported plate from the House to diplomats. The post was lucrative, but some of the perquisites of the role were exaggerated or overstated by Sir Gilbert Talbot, who was made Master in 1660 and in 1680 wrote a treatise entitled Of the Jewel house.
In the inventory the items were listed in categories; below an outline of the main categories is given with some examples of the 1,605 entries.

Other inventories of the Queen's jewels

On 12 January 1604 the goldsmiths William Herrick and John Spilman were asked to assess and make an inventory of jewels that had belonged to Queen Elizabeth. King James had already given many pieces to the queen, Princess Elizabeth, and Arbella Stuart and others. The remaining jewels had been transferred from the keeping of Mrs Mary Radcliffe or Ratcliffe, former gentlewoman to Queen Elizabeth, to the Countess of Suffolk. A list of jewels in the possession of Anne of Denmark in 1606 was published by Diana Scarisbrick. During the reign of James other lists of jewels were made, including those annexed to the crown in 1606, and those sent to Spain in 1623 at the time of the Spanish Match. These were printed in Thomas Rymer's Foedera.
In December 1607 Spilman, Herrick, and the goldsmith John Williams were asked to polish and amend some pieces that Queen Elizabeth had mortgaged, and King James gave Anna of Denmark a cup made of unicorn horn, a gold ewer, a salt with a branch from which serpent's tongues and sapphires were suspended, and a crystal chess board with crystal and topaz chessmen. The unicorn horn cup, the ewer, and the gold salt were listed in the inventory of Anna of Denmark.

Outline of the 1574 inventory

Gold plate

is high and across at its widest point. It weighs of solid gold, enamels and jewels, showing scenes from the life of Saint Agnes. Now in the British Museum, it was item no. 48 in the 1574 inventory, and later given away by James I.