A curious item regarding the use of pearls in embroidery is contained in one of the inventories of the dukes of Burgundy, made in 1414; this reads as follows:
The sum of 276 livres 7 sols 6 deniers tournois (about $960), the price of 960 pearls destined to ornament a dress; along the sleeves are embroidered the words of the song “Madame, je suis joyeulx,” and the notes are also marked along the sleeves. On each sleeve are 264 pearls which help in forming the notes of the said song, numbering 142; that is to say, a square made of four pearls for each note.[[472]]
Mention is made in two old French documents of the use of pearls from Compiegne in ornamentation. In the “Inventaire de la royne Clémence,” in 1328, we read of “a cock covered with precious stones and bearing a pearl of Compiègne”; and in the “Comptes Royaux,” under date of 1353, appears this item: “For four pearls, oriental, Scotch and of Compiègne, for the said arm-chair, 48 crowns.” As these pearls could not have been found in Compiègne, we may suppose that there was a market for their sale in that place, which gave rise to the designation.[[473]]
The English authority and writer on early English silver, F. Alfred Jones, communicated, under date of September, 1907, that pearls were rarely used in old English plate; in fact, any such embellishments were of exceedingly infrequent occurrence. They are, however, frequently mentioned in the inventory of the marvelous collection of gold plate dispersed by Charles I of England, which may have dated from the time of the looting of the churches and monasteries by Henry VIII.
The following items are from the inventories of Philip II of Spain and of Margarita, wife of Philip III. The original documents are in the Austrian archives.
A golden cup which came from England. Around the foot was a wreath of fifteen fleurons, each containing pearls, and also four St. Andrew’s crosses comprising eighteen pearls each. The interior of the cup showed scenes from the life of St. George and was studded with pearls, while thirty-one pearl pendants hung from the edge. 11,897 reals (about $1700).[[474]]
Some curious jewels, belonging to Queen Margarita, wife of Philip III of Spain, were entered in an inventory made in 1611.
An imperial eagle, full of diamonds, that came from England, with two pendants of two pearls, which could be unhooked from the said eagle and were worn by her Majesty at two masks as earrings. Valued at 77,000 reals (about $11,000).
Gold earrings, enameled in various colors, with seven diamonds in each one and three pendant pearls, two small ones of equal size and the other shaped like a pear. Valued at 1320 reals ($188).[[475]]
In the older Spanish jewelry pearls were frequently entirely pierced through, as if they had been worn in necklaces; and if hung as drops of one to three or more, they were strung on a wire, the upper end usually forming an ornament, and they were kept from falling off below by flattening the lower end of the wire, this flattening acting as a stop. These styles have a marked resemblance to the oriental methods elsewhere described, and suggest the derivation of the early Spanish pearl mounting from the Moorish occupation of the country. If they were set singly on any part of the jewel, they were put on a wire peg fastened to it, and then the end of the wire which projected was hammered flat to keep the pearl in place. Excellent examples of these styles are the Spanish earrings in the collection of the Hispano-American Museum of New York. The same method was used in Transylvania in the seventeenth century with remarkably artistic effect.