ES

We are told that the word "jewel" has come by degrees from Latin,
through French, to its present form; it commenced as a "gaudium"
(joy), and progressed through "jouel" and "joyau" to the familiar
word, as we have it.

The first objects to be made in the form of personal adornment were
necklaces: this may be easily understood, for in certain savage
lands the necklace formed, and still forms, the chief feature in
feminine attire. In this little treatise, however, we cannot deal
with anything so primitive or so early; we must not even take time
to consider the exquisite Greek and Roman jewelry. Amongst the
earliest mediaeval jewels we will study the Anglo-Saxon and the
Byzantine.

Anglo-Saxon and Irish jewelry is famous for delicate filigree, fine
enamels, and flat garnets used in a very decorative way. Niello
was also employed to some extent. It is easy, in looking from the
Bell of St. Patrick to the Book of Kells, to see how the illuminators
were influenced by the goldsmiths in early times,--in Celtic and
Anglo-Saxon work.

[Illustration: SAXON BROOCH]

The earliest forms of brooches were the annular,--that is, a long
pin with a hinged ring at its head for ornament, and the "penannular,"
or pin with a broken circle at its head. Through the opening in the
circle the pin returns, and then with a twist of the ring, it is
held more firmly in the material. Of these two forms are notable
examples in the Arbutus brooch and the celebrated Tara brooch. The
Tara brooch is a perfect museum in itself of the jeweller's art.
It is ornamented with enamel, with jewels set in silver, amber,
scroll filigree, fine chains, Celtic tracery, moulded glass--nearly
every branch of the art is represented in this one treasure, which
was found quite by accident near Drogheda, in 1850, a landslide
having exposed the buried spot where it had lain for centuries.
As many as seventy-six different kinds of workmanship are to be
detected on this curious relic.

[Illustration: THE TARA BROOCH]

At a great Exhibition at Ironmonger's Hall in 1861
there was shown a leaden fibula, quite a dainty piece of personal
ornament, in Anglo-Saxon taste, decorated with a moulded spiral
meander. It was found in the Thames in 1855, and there are only
three other similar brooches of lead known to exist.

Of the Celtic brooches Scott speaks:

"...the brooch of burning gold
That clasps the chieftain's mantle fold,
Wrought and chased with rare devi