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CROWN OF HUNGARY.
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317
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viour
' : ' The slight lobes of her ears outweigh a whole year's income, and
her left hand squanders a money-bag on every one of its joints.' "
Where saccus seems to denote a fixed sum, like in our day the Turkish purse (601.).
Caylus
(vii. pi. 70) figures a necklace that gives a good notion of the style
of Lollia's jewelry. It consists of fourteen short six-sided prisms of
plasma, and six irregular pastes connected together by two gold links
between each The plasmas are one-third of an inch long, and very neatly
cut. Amongst the finest specimens now extant comes, undoubtedly, the
one formerly in the Uzielli Collection (No. 637), composed of
true-love-knots in gold, uniting large irregular Eubies and Emeralds
(fine stones), each perforated at the ends. Lucian (Dial. Meret. vi.)
makes the girl Corinna beg her mother to " buy her a gold necklace,
having on it some fiery stones, like that of Philinnis." These people
are of the lower class ; the " fiery stones," therefore, must have been
common Garnets, in which abundance of beads are found shaped exactly as
the plasmas above mentioned.
Before
dismissing this subject, its national interest pleads for a brief
notice of another crown, though it boasts of no historical celebrity,
all our ancient regalia having been sold by order of the Commonwealth
Commissioners. Yet a few of the most important stones belonging to them
were recovered from the purchasers, and employed in the crown made for
the coronation of Charles IL, and again when that was broken up
introduced in that now in use. The following is an exact copy of Prof.
Tennant's description of the Imperial State Crown of England :—
"
The Imperial State Crown of H.M. Queen Victoria was made in the year
1838 by Messrs. Eundell and Bridge, with jewels taken from old crowns
and others furnished by command of Her Majesty. It consists of
diamonds, pearls,
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