Three Brothers (jewel)
The Three Brothers | |
---|---|
Weight | ~300 carats (60 g) total |
Created | 1389 |
Place | Paris, France |
Present location | Unknown since 1645 |
The Three Brothers (also known as the Three Brethren; German: Drei Brüder; French: Les Trois Frères) was a piece of jewellery created in the late 14th century, which consisted of three rectangular red spinels arranged around a central diamond. The jewel is known for having been owned by a number of important historical figures. After its commission by Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy, the jewel was part of the Burgundian crown jewels for almost 100 years, before passing into the possession of German banker Jakob Fugger.
The Brothers were eventually sold to
Description
The Three Brothers remained essentially unchanged over more than 250 years. The jewel is known to have been reset at least once in 1623, but a variety of descriptions indicate that its original form and composition were retained over its entire lifespan. Originally made as a shoulder clasp or pendant, it consisted of three rectangular red
When the Brothers made their first appearance in an inventory—that of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1419—the jewel was described as:
A very fine and rich buckle, adorned in the middle with a very big pointed diamond, and around this are three fine square balas stones called the three brothers, and three sizable fine pearls in between these. Under this buckle hangs a very large fine pearl in the shape of a pear.[5]
In 1587 the Three Brothers were listed among jewels delivered to Elizabethan courtier Mary Radcliffe and described as:
A faire Flower of Goulde with three greate Ballasses in the middest, a great poynted Dyamond and three greate Pearles fixte with a fair Pearle Pendant, called the Brethren.[6]: 774
Early history
The jewel was commissioned by Duke
The jewel remained in Burgundy during Philip's reign, and on his death in 1467 was inherited by his son
In 1504, Basel succeeded in selling the Three Brothers to Augsburg banker Jakob Fugger after a year of negotiations.[10]: 54 [12] A merchant by trade, Fugger had become one of the wealthiest individuals in history by dealing in textiles and metals, and through extending loans to the Habsburg dynasty. The Basel sale included the Brothers and three other pieces of jewellery from Charles' hoard—the Federlin (little feather), the Gürtelin (little garter) and the White Rose—for a total price of 40,200 florins,[12] which at the time was enough to pay 3,300 common labourers for a year.[10]: 79 While this constituted a significant expense, Fugger made many such transactions over the years, and the price pales in comparison to his total assets, which reached more than 2 million guilders at his death in 1525.[13] For Fugger, jewellery and precious stones were a highly fungible capital reserve,[10]: 47–74 and an investment to be sold to the right client at a profit.[12] In fact, Fugger already had Emperor Maximilian I in mind as a buyer when he purchased the Brothers, but the Emperor balked at Fugger's exorbitant asking price and bought everything on offer, but not the pendant.[14]
The jewel stayed with the Fuggers for several decades. When Johann Jakob Fugger commissioned a history of the House of Habsburg in 1555, the Three Brothers were still described as a "treasure known to all Christendom" that the Fuggers had owned.[2] However, Jakob Fugger's nephew Anton Fugger, who was now running the family business, had decided to liquidate part of the family's possessions by the 1540s. He first unsuccessfully offered the Brothers to King Ferdinand I and Emperor Charles V, while a bid from the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was refused because Anton did not want the jewel to fall into non-Christian hands.[12]
When continental Christian kings could not be convinced to buy the jewel, the Fuggers turned to King
As an English crown jewel
Edward left the pendant with his Lord High Treasurer William Paulet for safekeeping on 7 June 1551, where it remained for the following years.[17] When Edward died after a six-year reign, the Brothers were inherited by his half-sister Mary on her accession as Queen in July 1553.[6]: 460 The jewel is described in a list of items delivered to Mary on 20 September 1553 as "a great pendant bought of the Fuggers in Flanders having three large ballaces set without fault, one large pointed diamond and four large pearls, whereof one hangs underneath",[note 1] which indicates that it had seen very few, if any, alterations since John the Fearless had commissioned it more than 150 years earlier. At the time of Mary's accession, German historian Peter Lambeck—grandson of Johann Jakob Fugger—wrote of his hope that her marriage to Philip II of Spain would bring the Three Brothers back into possession of the Habsburgs and to the continent, but this did not come to pass.[6]: 461 After a reign of only five years, Mary died in 1558.
The jewel made a re-appearance during the reign of her successor Elizabeth I. Much like her father Henry VIII, Elizabeth knew when and how to use ostentatious displays of wealth[18] and evidently liked the showy red-and-white piece of jewellery with the unusual triangular arrangement.[19] The Queen wore it as part of her crown jewels on several occasions,[20] and it is prominently featured in at least two portraits of her. First, in the Ermine Portrait (c. 1585, today in Hatfield House) attributed to William Segar or George Gower, in which the Brothers appear suspended from a massive, pearl-studded carcanet or necklace, dramatically offset against a black dress.[19][21] And second, on the lesser known Elizabeth I of England holding an olive branch (c. 1587) by an unknown painter, originally given to the Navarrese diplomat François de Civille, where the pendant takes pride of place as the only significant piece of jewellery worn against a richly decorated white dress. Elizabeth died in 1603 at the end of a 45-year reign, by which time the jewel had become so tied to her persona that when a marble monument to her was erected in Westminster Abbey in 1606, a replica of the Brothers was made part of her tomb effigy; the element was fully restored in 1975.[22]
On Elizabeth's death, the jewel passed to her successor, James I, who had ruled in Scotland as James VI until his accession. In 1606 the Three Brothers were listed in an inventory of the monarch's possessions amongst those jewels "never to be alienated from the Crown".[1][23] The pendant was a favourite of James, who re-fashioned it into a hat jewel.[24] A portrait of James produced around 1605 by court painter John de Critz shows the Brothers in great detail as the King wore it with a pearl-studded band on a black hat. He wore other crown jewels in a similar fashion, such as the Mirror of Great Britain.[1]
Towards the end of James' reign, the jewel was reset, possibly for the first time since its creation. In 1623, James' son and heir apparent
Later history and loss
When the Spanish match failed to materialise and James died in March 1625, the newly crowned Charles I instead married French princess
It is at the end of Henrietta's trip in 1643 that the trail of the jewel began to disappear. There is no record of her selling or pawning the pendant in the Netherlands, and it is likely that the Brothers returned with her to England.[36] As the country descended into the First English Civil War between Charles and Parliament, Henrietta fled to Paris in 1644, where she again immediately attempted to raise funds.[37] Once more the local market showed little interest, but in early 1645, she succeeded in selling an unnamed piece of jewellery for the comparatively low price of 104,000 guilders. The piece was described as a "pyramidal diamond, 3 balas rubies, 4 pearls with the addition of a table cut diamond of 30 carats and two pointed diamonds", which closely matches the original description of the Three Brothers if it had been altered by adding smaller diamonds. However, there is no definite proof that this was the same item.[33] A contemporary letter to Henrietta's secretary identifies two Hague jewellers and gemstone dealers, Thomas Cletcher and Joachim de Wicquefort , as possible middlemen or buyers of the unnamed jewel. Cletcher, who would later become court jeweller to Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, had already been involved in the pawning of the Mirror of Great Britain in 1625 and would therefore have been familiar to Charles and Henrietta.[33]
The fate of the Brothers after 1645 is unknown. It has been suggested that the jewel was broken up, or bought by French chief minister Cardinal Mazarin, a renowned jewel collector to whom Henrietta Maria was deeply indebted.[38][39] There has also been speculation that the pendant was modified, creating a jewel called the Three Sisters in the process. The Sisters were offered to Prince Frederick Henry around the time of Henrietta's sale in 1645. However, besides the possibly coincidental similarity in naming, there is no hard evidence to suggest that the Brothers became the Sisters.[33] There has been no confirmed sighting of the jewel since.[1]
In literature
Tobias Hill published the novel The Love of Stones in 2001, which charts the lives of several real and fictional persons coming in contact with the Three Brothers.[40]
See also
- Beau Sancy diamond—also pawned through Thomas Cletcher
- Florentine Diamond—lost jewel also supposedly once belonging to Charles the Bold
- List of diamonds
- List of missing treasures
Notes
References
- ^ JSTOR 875015.
- ^ a b c d e f "Miniatur des Anhängers Die drei Brüder". Historisches Museum Basel (in German). Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Weldons (2014). "The Three Brethren Jewel". Weldon's of Dublin. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
- OCLC 1030892978.
- ^ Deuchler, Florens (1963). Die Burgunderbeute; Inventar der Beutestücke aus den Schlachten von Grandson, Murten und Nancy, 1476/1477 (in German). Bern: Stämpfli. p. 123.
- ^ OCLC 868967373.
- OCLC 56439373.
- OCLC 405255.
- ^ Winkler, Albert (2010). "The Battle of Murten: The Invasion of Charles the Bold and the Survival of the Swiss States". Faculty Publications. Brigham Young University: 19.
- ^ OCLC 965139738.
- OCLC 942897524.
- ^ ISBN 9789004228726.
- ^ "Anton Fugger". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
- ^ OCLC 13964318.
- ^ Hayward, Maria (2019). "Treasured possessions: The material world of Henry VIII" (PDF). Retrieved 14 August 2020.
- OCLC 468585928.
- ^ OCLC 42834727.
- ^ "Elizabeth I's Royal Wardrobe". Royal Museums Greenwich. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
- ^ a b Scarisbrick, Diana (1989). "Jewellery of Queen Elizabeth I". Haughton International. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- OCLC 1070831637.
- OCLC 768835625.
- ^ "Elizabeth I". Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ Nichols, John (1828). The Progresses, Processions and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First, His Royal Consort, Family and Court, Etc. London. p. 46.
- ISBN 978-1-137-60145-2.
- required.)
- ^ "Calendar of State Papers Domestic: James I, 1619-23". British History Online. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Nichols, John (1828). The Progresses, Processions and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First, His Royal Consort, Family and Court, Etc. London: J.B. Nichols. p. 833.
- ^ Henry Paton, HMC Report on Various Manuscripts, vol. 5 (Hereford, 1909), p. 123
- OCLC 25832187.
- JSTOR 574219.
- ^ "Three Brothers Jewel & White Rose Jewel: Stolen Royal Jewelry". All About Jewelry. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- S2CID 204455747.
- ^ ISSN 1638-1718.
- ^ Harleian MS 7379: 2, cited in Humphrey 2014.
- ^ "House of Commons Journal Volume 2: 11 June 1642". British History Online. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ a b Humphrey, David (2012). "A Chronicle of the 'Three Brothers' Jewel between 1623 and c.1644". Jewellery Studies. 12.
- ISBN 978-0-230-32179-3
- ^ "Henrietta Maria (1609–1669) | Encyclopedia.com". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
- OCLC 758832190.
- ^ Murphy, Bernadette (29 January 2002). "In Search of the Three Brethren, Jewels Valued Beyond Price". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
Further reading
- Balfour, Ian (2009). Famous Diamonds (5th ed.). Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 978-1851494798
- Blair, Claude, ed. (1998). The Crown Jewels: The History of the Coronation Regalia. The Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-11-701359-9
- Bycroft, Michael; Dupré, Sven, eds. (2018). Gems in the Early Modern World: Materials, Knowledge and Global Trade, 1450–1800. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-96379-2
- Collins, Arthur J., ed. (1955). Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I. Trustees of the British Museum. ISBN 978-0-714-10445-4
- Strong, Roy (2006). Coronation: From the 8th to the 21st Century. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-00-716055-6
- Twining, Edward F. (1960). A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe. B. T. Batsford. ASIN B00283LZA6