About Precious Jewels and King Alfred of England

Asser tells us that King Alfred sent rich presents to the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula, and received from them jewels of considerable value. The famous gold enamelled jewel of that monarch, in the Ashmolean Museum, is a fine example of the goldsmith's art at this period (871 to 901 A.D.). It was discovered in 1693 near Athelney Abbey, in a part of Somersetshire which had often been visited by Alfred, and to which he had retreated when worsted by the Danes in 878. It is formed of gold elaborately wrought in a peculiar kind of filagree, mixed with engraved and chased work. The legend round the edge of the jewel, "+Aelfred mee heht gevvrcau" (Aelfred ordered me to be wrought), is cut in bold characters, the intervening spaces being pierced, so that the crystal within is seen. The face is formed of a piece of rock-crystal, four-tenths of an inch in thickness, under which is placed the singular enamelled subject of which no satisfactory solution is given. It has been supposed to be a representation of the Saviour, St. Neot, St. Cuthbert, or Alfred himself. The workmanship is very curious; the design was first traced out in filagree attached to a face of the plate of gold, the intervening spaces were then filled up with vitreous pastes of different colours, so that at first sight the work appears to resemble a mosaic, but there is little doubt that the colours were fixed upon the plates by fusion. The ground is of a rich blue, coloured, probably, by means of cobalt; the face and arms are white, slightly shaded; the portions which are represented in a woodcut as shaded diagonally, are of a pale translucent green, and those which are hatched with perpendicular lines are of a reddish brown, the vitreous pastes in this instance are semi-transparent, and of a crystalline crackly appearance, resembling some specimens of quartz.

A convex brooch of gold filagree, set with pearls, and a central enamelled ornament, precisely similar to Alfred's jewel in the mode of execution, was found in 1840 about nine feet beneath the surface of the ground in Thames Street, London.

In 926, Hugh-le-Grand sent a splendid legation to Athelstan with the request for the hand of his daughter, Eadhilda. They bore such treasures as England had not yet seen--the precious onyx vase, embossed by Grecian art, exciting the marvel of the beholders, who declared that the corn seemed waving, the tendrils growing, the figures instinct with life; brilliant gems among which the emerald shone resplendent, etc.