FAMOUS PEARLS AND COLLECTIONS 451
ment
official for the sum of three florins. Some years later this jewel,
together with the ducal cap of Charles the Bold, which was covered with
pearls, and bore a plume case, set with diamonds (points), alternating
with pearls and balas-rubies, was sold by the Bernese government to
Jacob Fugger, as related by J. J. Fugger in the manuscript above noted,
"for no more than 47,000 florins." In the vain hope that it would be
purchased by Emperor Charles V, grandson of Charles the Bold, Fugger
held the jewel for many years, but he broke up the cap and reset the
stones in it for Maximilian II. The brooch was finally sold to Henry
VIII of England just before his death, and it passed to his daughter
and successor, Bloody Mary, who presented it to her Spanish bridegroom,
Philip. Thus, after seventy-six years, the jewel was restored to a
descendant of the original owner. This history has been given at some
length owing to its illustration of the manner in which great pearls
were easily lost on battle-fields and were passed about from one
country to another.
Tararequi Pearls. The
early American fisheries yielded several magnificent pearls, many of
which eventually became part of the imperial Spanish jewels. Prominent
among these was the Huer fana or Sola. According to
Gomara, this was secured in 1515 from the Indians at Tararequi, in the
Gulf of Panama, in a large collection which weighed 880 ounces. It was
pear-shaped and weighed thirty-one carats. Gomara states that this
pearl was purchased from Gaspar de Morales, leader of the Spanish
expedition, by a merchant, for the sum of 12,000 castilians. "The
purchaser could not sleep that night for thinking on the fact that he
had given so much money for one stone, and sold it the very next day to
Pedrarias de Avila, for his wife Donna Isabel de Bovadilla" ; and
afterward it passed to Isabella, wife of Emperor Charles V
(1500-1558). It was remarkable for its luster, color, and clearness, as
well as for its size. Another large pearl in this collection weighed
twenty-six carats.
Oviedo Pearl. As already
noted on page 237, in his "Historia natural y general de las Indias,"
published at Toledo in 1526, Gonzalo de Oviedo wrote of having
purchased at Panama a pearl weighing twenty-six carats for which he
paid 650 times its weight in fine gold, and which he claimed was the
"greatest, fairest and roundest" that had ever been seen at Panama.
Probably this was the twenty-six-carat pearl obtained at Tararequi by
Gaspar de Morales in 1515. At 650 times its weight in gold the value of
this pearl would be $2294.54; representing a base of $.2124 per grain;
but at a base of $5
