Aside from his portrayal of jewels in his numerous portraits, Holbein ranked as the master designer of jewels in his day.  Many of the finest of these designs have been preserved for us and can be seen in the British Museum, to which they were bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane in 1753.  There are 179 separate pieces, usually pen-and-ink sketches.  The execution of the jewels from these designs is believed to have been mainly done by Hans of Antwerp, known as Hans Anwarpe, a friend of Holbein, who settled in London in 1514, and was appointed goldsmith to King Henry VIII, for whom he produced many jewels for New Year’s gifts.[23]

[Footnote 23:  H. Clifford Smith, “Jewellery”, London [1908], pp. 211, 213.]

In judging of the jewels figured in portraits we must remember that the artist has often modified them to bring them into greater harmony with their immediate surroundings.  This, in some cases, may lead him to make of a somewhat inartistically designed jewel a beautifully proportioned one.  Again, he may be led to exaggerate the size of the precious stones or pearls, and to intensify or deepen their colors.  A recent instance regards a portrait of the former queen of Spain by one of the foremost Spanish artists of our day.  The royal lady was depicted wearing an enormous pearl; however, the artist informed the author that the real pearl was much smaller than the painted one, but that, in portraying it, a better decorative effect was obtained by increasing its size.  Whether Holbein (1497-1543), with his Dutch exactness of portrayal, was led into any similar exaggerations we can never tell, as little as we can know anything definite regarding the true size of the jewels shown in the portraits by the Italian Zucchero (1529-1566), the Fleming Lucas de Heere (1524-1584), or by any other of the portrait painters of Elizabeth’s time.

In a very modest way the addition of gilded scarf-pins, brooches, chains, etc., not owned by the sitters, was not uncommonly practised thirty or forty years ago, when colored tintypes were popular.  These were painted on the photographs, much to the gratification of those who ordered them for distribution among their friends.

The court-jewellers of France in Shakespeare’s day rivalled, though they did not excel, those of England.  Among them a prominent place belongs to Francois Dujardin (or Desjardin), goldsmith of Charles IX (1560-1574) and Henri III (1574-1589).  When a verification and an inventory of the French Crown Jewels were made on August 1, 1574, after the death of Charles IX, the expert examination was entrusted to Francois Dujardin, who is termed “orfebvre et lapidaire du Roy”.  The goldsmith’s art was passed down from father to son in this family:  a second F. Dujardin (b. ca. 1565) mounted the parures made for Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Henri IV and Maria de’ Medici.  In the reign of Henri IV and the succeeding regency of Maria de’ Medici, Josse de Langerac, received as master goldsmith in