About Brooches with Precious Stones

Brooches, ring-shaped, were worn from times of remote antiquity, and are found among Etruscan and Roman remains; also in Saxon places of burial in England. The circular fibula, or brooch, frequently enriched with costly gems, was used to fasten the cloak or mantle over the breast; the pin was affixed beneath. Some splendid examples of these ornaments may be seen in works on Saxon antiquities. The Norman brooch was more like an ornamental open circle of jewels and stones, with a central pin. The mediaeval ring-brooches are interesting chiefly on account of the legends and ornaments engraved upon them, which occasionally appear to have been talismanic, but usually express the love of which such gifts were the token. Of the former kind is the beautiful brooch, set with gems, and curiously formed with two tongues, formerly in the possession of Colonel Campbell of Glen Lion, and inscribed with the names of the three Kings of the East.

Chaucer, in "Troilus and Creseida," says:--

"A broche of gold and azure,

In which a ruby set was like an herte,

Creseide him gave, and stucke it on his sherte."

Chaucer describes a carpenter's wife as wearing a very large brooch:--

"A broche she bare upon hire low colere

As brode as is the bosse of a bokelere."

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, brooches garnished with jewels were commonly worn by all persons of rank and means, and were of great value and beauty. Holbein designed several for Henry VIII., the drawings of which are still in the British Museum The brooches were placed not only about the body but were worn in caps and hats by both sexes. Boasting of the riches of Virginia, Seagul, in the play of "Eastward Hoe!" (1605), says "that the people there stuck rubies and diamonds in their children's caps, as common as our children wear saffron-gilt broches and groats with holes in them."

In Scott's "Lord of the Isles, "there is a description in six stanzas of the Brooch of Lorn:--

"Whence the brooch of burning gold

That clasps the chieftain's mantle fold,

Wrought and chased with rare device,

Studded fair with gems of price."

In the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," the wife of Watt Tinlinn, the shoemaker, is described as--

"Stout, ruddy, and dark brow'd,

Of silver brooch and bracelet proud."