Folia historica 24

II. Közlemények - Ewa Letkiewicz: The Jewels of Queen Isabella of Hungary

construction of the jewel consists of open work plaints of stylized plants, in a few places decorated with a gristly ornament, and in two widest parts of the jewel - adorned with griffin heads. The open work contraction is adorned with white, black, red, green and blue enamel, excellently matching the golden parts, without colourful coating, which creates the effect of fine polychrome. On the whole the surface of the jewel is concentrically arranged with stones: ellipse or tear-shaped, en cabochon cut almandine and opals. Two almandine are placed on the outer edges of the jewel, right beneath the griffin heads. They are cut into cones. The three largest opals are loosely suspended in the lower part of the jewel. Open work jewels, such as the one connected with Queen Isabella, were manufactured first in Europe in the 1690s at the instance of a Huguenot refugee from France Daniel Mignot, who having left his fatherland, settled in Augsburg. Between 1593-1596 he published graphic designs of pendant composed of plant twigs, decorated with griffin heads. Open work structures, as much cheaper than solid jewels, cast ing old, quickly won enormous popularity. Tens of jewels exploiting his patterns have been preserved till the present day. An example for the jewel called Justice, manufactured in Augsburg between 1590-1600, now in Metropolitan Museum of Art; or jewel Salome with Holofernes's head, from the same ages, now a private possession.

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4 Some of his designs provided pendants consisting of two or three parallel, open work elements, joined with screws and creating layered structure of the jewel.

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5 A good example is also one of the most beautiful jewels in the Polish collection: the pendant with Mermaid, kepi in the District Museum in Torun, dated to the 1690s, constructed of two parallel elements joined with tiny screws, (photo 4) The Budapest jewel has a simpler structure. Open work plaits form a frame to which stones, set in shallow, nearly, edgeless cribs, are screwed. The stones are protected from falling out by means of claws cut in metal. It was made in one of the tenths of goldsmith workshops of the central Europe that made use of fashionable graphic patterns inspired by Mignot's graphics, probably al the end of the 16

th or at the beginning of the 17

t

h century. Therefore it could not belong to Queen Isabella, who died in Alba Julia in 1559. Using opals for the setting may indicate Hungarian origin of the jewel, because Vörösvágás (Cerveniea) was the only European mine of this beautiful stone of red and green and violet and blue opalescence in the 16

t

h century.

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6 However we cannot rule out the connections of the pearl chain with Isabella Jagiellonka. (photo 5) This 154,6 cm long gold chain consists of 36 links: six large ones and thirty small 4. photo Gold Pendant Mermaid

, late 16 1 ccntury. Torun, National Museum (photo: Bernadeta Swobodzinska) 5. photo Queen Isabella's chain, c. 1550. Budapest, Hungarian National Museum. 14 Both jewels published in Hackenbroch, Yvonne: Renaissance jewellery. London-New York, 1979. 179. ' 15 Phillips, Clare: Jewellery: from antiquity to the present. London, 1996. 83. 1

6 H. Kolba, J.-Т. Németh, A. op. cit. 17. 199