Inventories supply a certain amount of information concerning bracelets. Henry VIII in 1530 possessed seventeen, including one of "Paris work, with jacynths; and one with eight diamonds, eight rubies, fourteen pearls, and a diamond rose." Elizabeth received a large number of bracelets amongst her New Year's gifts. In the inventory of Mary Stuart's jewels are "Une paire de brasseletz garniz de cornaline lappines et agate et entredeux de doubles—Une aultre paire de brasseletz damatiste—Ung bracelet fait a facon de serpent." Others are formed, as were necklaces, of beads of filigree enclosing perfumes: "Deux braceletz dor percez a jour pleins de parfum—Une aultre paire dor a jour empliz de parfum."
References to bracelets by writers of the period show that they were not infrequently worn as love tokens. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's Revenge:—
Given ear-rings we will wear
Bracelets of our lovers' hair,
Which they on our arms shall twist
With our names carv'd on our wrist.
Also in Barnfield's Affectionate Shepherd (1594):—
I would put amber bracelets on thy wrist,
Crownlets of pearls about thy naked arms.
Contemporary designs prove that bracelets followed the same elaborate forms as other articles of jewellery, as may be seen from the engraved designs of Ducerceau, and the Livre de Bijouterie of René Boyvin of Angers (1530-1598).
One of the most interesting bracelets—as far as actual specimens are concerned—is preserved at Berkeley Castle amongst the heirlooms bequeathed by George Carey, Lord Hunsdon, who died in 1603. It is of crystal and gold, 3¾ inches in diameter. The crystal, a complete circlet overlaid with open-work gold, is encrusted all round with rubies, and has at intervals four clusters of rubies around a sapphire (Pl. XXXV, 5). It is somewhat difficult to arrive at a decision as to the origin of this remarkable object. It seems to bear traces of Oriental influence in the setting of the stones, though the goldwork is of different quality from what one would expect to find in Indian work. If, like the "nef" jewel at Berkeley, this armlet is to be associated with Sir Francis Drake, it may well have been obtained by him as part of some Spanish spoil, in like manner to the "crystal bracelet set in gold" procured by Sir Matthew Morgan at the capture of Cadiz in 1596—Cadiz being then the staple town for all the trades of the Levant and of the Indies.[168]
Bracelets formed of cameos are met with sometimes on portraits. The Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris preserves a pair of bracelets (Nos. 624 and 625) formed each of seven oval shell cameos representing figures of animals, enclosed in gold mounting enriched with blue enamel, and hinged together by a double chain ornamented with rosettes enamelled green. On the under side of the larger cameos which form the clasps are two interlacing C's within a wreath of palm and olive, enamelled green, and a barred S in blue enamel at each angle. These bracelets, of which the cameos as well as the mountings are of fine sixteenth-century work, have been traditionally associated with Diana of Poitiers. But the interlaced C's, according to M. Babelon, are in all probability the initials of some lady of the family of Harlay, from whom the bracelets were acquired by Louis XIV (Pl. XXXVII, 3, 4).
PLATE XXXVII