| Two balas rubies, | valued at | 150,000 | maravedis |
| Twelve rubies, | valued at | 403,528 | maravedis |
| Twelve emeralds, | „ | 237,500 | „ |
| Fifty-seven diamonds, | „ | 555,396 | „ |
| One hundred and eighty-two pearls, | „ | 397,838 | „ |
The precious stones were thus valued at a total of 1,744,262 maravedis. Besides this, the value of the gold and silver contained in the crown was estimated to amount to 405,227 maravedis, while 3,097,750 maravedis were allowed for the workmanship. These figures relate to the part which was made by Alejo de Montoya only. That which had previously been executed by Fernando de Carrión was valued at 1,954,156 maravedis, making a grand total, for the whole jewel, of 7,201,395 maravedis. At the present day the intrinsic value of the crown would be from nine to ten thousand pounds sterling.
In 1869 this splendid specimen of Renaissance jewellery was stolen from a cupboard in the cathedral of Toledo, sharing thus the fate of many other precious objects which have been entrusted to the slender vigilance or slender probity of Spanish church authorities.
APPENDIX E
GOLD INLAY ON STEEL AND IRON
The inlaying of iron or steel with gold is often thought to be a craft particularly Spanish, and to have been inherited directly by the Spanish Christians from the Spanish Moors. This work, however, although we may assume it to have been of Eastern origin in a period of remote antiquity, was quite familiar to the ancient Romans, including, probably, such as made their home in Spain. The Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini contain the following notice of the work in question:—
“I met with some little Turkish daggers, the handles of which were of iron as well as the blade, and even the scabbard was of that metal. On these were engraved several fine foliages in the Turkish taste, most beautifully filled up with gold. I found I had a strong inclination to cultivate this branch likewise, which was so different from the rest; and finding that I had great success in it, I produced several pieces in this way. My performances, indeed, were much finer and more durable than the Turkish, for several reasons: one was, that I made a much deeper incision in the steel than is generally practised in Turkish works; the other, that their foliages are nothing else but chicory leaves, with some few flowers of echites: these have, perhaps, some grace, but they do not continue to please like our foliages. In Italy there is a variety of tastes, and we cut foliages in many different forms. The Lombards make the most beautiful wreaths, representing ivy and vine-leaves, and others of the same sort, with agreeable twinings highly pleasing to the eye. The Romans and the Tuscans have a much better notion in this respect, for they represent acanthus leaves, with all their festoons and flowers, winding in a variety of forms; and amongst these leaves they insert birds and animals of several sorts with great ingenuity and elegance in the arrangement. They likewise have recourse occasionally to wild flowers, such as those called Lions' Mouths, from their peculiar shape, accompanied by other fine inventions of the imagination, which are termed grotesques by the ignorant. These foliages have received that name from the moderns, because they are found in certain caverns in Rome, which in ancient days were chambers, baths, studies, halls, and other places of a like nature. The curious happened to discover them in these subterranean caverns, whose low situation is owing to the raising of the surface of the ground in a series of ages; and as these caverns in Rome are commonly called grottos, they from thence acquired the name of grotesque. But this is not their proper name; for, as the ancients delighted in the composition of chimerical creatures, and gave to the supposed promiscuous breed of animals the appellation of monsters, in like manner artists produced by their foliages monsters of this sort; and that is the proper name for them—not grotesques. In such a taste I made foliages filled up in the manner above mentioned, which were far more elegant and pleasing to the eye than the Turkish works.
“It happened about this time that certain vases were discovered, which appeared to be antique urns filled with ashes. Amongst these were iron rings inlaid with gold, in each of which was set a diminutive shell. Learned antiquarians, upon investigating the nature of these rings, declared their opinion that they were worn as charms by those who desired to behave with steadiness and resolution either in prosperous or adverse fortune.
“I likewise took things of this nature in hand at the request of some gentlemen who were my particular friends, and wrought some of these little rings; but I made them of steel well tempered, and then cut and inlaid with gold, so that they were very beautiful to behold: sometimes for a single ring of this sort I was paid above forty crowns.”