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ORNAMENTS AND DECORATION 417
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and
twenty-five emeralds. The value of the gold and gems was estimated at
$10,000 in 1898, which is probably less than it would be worth to-day.
The sacred crown worn by St. Wenceslaus was inserted within the crown
of Charles IV at the instance of Queen Bianca. The golden scepter and
the golden orb are of very beautiful workmanship. The scepter has six
rubies, eight sapphires, and thirty-one pearls. There may also be seen
in the treasury a gilded monstrance, in the style of the Renaissance,
studded with pearls and precious stones, a gift of the princely family
of Schwarzenberg. Within the same cathedral, in the tabernacle of the
chapel of St. Ludmilla, wife of the first Duke of Bohemia, is the head
of that saint, bearing a crown studded with 1800 pearls.1
The
crown of Vladimir, with its singular and thoroughly Russian form, is
preserved in the treasury of the Kremlin at Moscow, and has been used
at the coronation of all the Russian emperors. It has borne the name of
the crown or cap of Monomachus from the reign of Ivan IV. Although, to
judge from this designation, the crown was probably executed in the
twelfth or thirteenth century, there is a legend to the effect that it
was sent, in 988, from Byzantium by the ruler as a gift to St.
Vladimir. It is executed in filigree work, and is surmounted by a plain
cross with four pearls at the extremities; between these pearls are set
a topaz, a sapphire, and a ruby. The crown itself is ornamented with
four emeralds, four rubies, and twenty-five pearls from Ormus, set in
gold. The cap" has a bordering of sable fur, and is lined with red
satin. Γ See Maskell, "Russian Art," London, 1884, P· 125.)
The
imperial state crown of her Majesty Queen Victoria, was made in the
year 1838 by Messrs. Rondell and Bridge, with jewels taken from old
crowns, and others furnished by command of her Majesty. It consisted of
diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, set in silver and
gold. It had a crimson velvet cap with ermine border, and was lined
with white silk. Its gross weight was thirty-nine ounces five
pennyweights troy. The lower part of the band above the ermine border
consisted of a row of 129 pearls, and the upper part of a row of 112
pearls; between these rows, in the front of the crown, was a large
sapphire (partly drilled) purchased for the crown by his Majesty George
IV. In the front of the crown, and in the center of a diamond Maltese
cross, was the famous ruby said to have been given to Edward, Prince of
Wales (the Black Prince), by Don Pedro, King of Castile, after the
battle of Nâjera, near Vittoria, 1367 a.d. This
ruby was worn in the helmet of Henry V at the battle of Agincourt, 1415
A.D. It was pierced quite through, after the eastern custom, the upper
l "Die Domkirche bet St. Veit in Prag," Prague, 1890, pp. 13, 19, 21.
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