did not
beat him, I give L50 to the footman who cudgelled him. Item, my
will is that the said Sir Harry shall not meddle with my jewels. I
knew him... when he handled the Crown jewels,... for which reason
I now name him the Knave of Diamonds."

Jewelled arms and trappings became very rich in the fifteenth century.
Pius II. writes of the German armour: "What shall I say of the
neck chains of the men, and the bridles of the horses, which are
made of the purest gold; and of the spears and scabbards which are
covered with jewels?" Spurs were also set with jewels, and often
damascened with gold, and ornamented with appropriate mottoes.

An inventory of the jewelled cups and reliquaries of Queen Jeanne
of Navarre, about 1570, reads like a museum. She had various gold
and jewelled dishes for banquets; one jewel is described as "Item,
a demoiselle of gold, represented as riding upon a horse, of mother
of pearl, standing upon a platform of gold, enriched with ten rubies,
six turquoises and three fine pearls." Another item is, "A fine rock
crystal set in gold, enriched with three rubies, three emeralds,
and a large sapphire, set transparently, the whole suspended from
a small gold chain."

It is time now to speak of the actual precious stones themselves,
which apart from their various settings are, after all, the real
jewels. According to Cellini there are only four precious stones:
he says they are made "by the four elements," ruby by fire, sapphire
by air, emerald by earth, and diamond by water. It irritated him
to have any one claim others as precious stones. "I have a thing
or two to say," he remarks, "in order not to scandalize a certain
class of men who call themselves jewellers, but may be better likened
to hucksters, or linen drapers, pawn brokers, or grocers... with a
maximum of credit and a minimum of brains... these dunderheads...
wag their arrogant tongues at me and cry, 'How about the chrysophrase,
or the jacynth, how about the aqua marine, nay more, how about the
garnet, the vermeil, the crysolite, the plasura, the amethyst?
Ain't these all stones and all different?' Yes, and why the devil
don't you add pearls, too, among the jewels, ain't they fish bones?"
Thus he classes the stones together, adding that the balas, though
light in colour, is a ruby, and the topaz a sapphire. "It is of the
same hardness, and though of a different colour, must be classified
with the sapphire: what better classification do you wa