FAMOUS PEARLS AND COLLECTIONS 455
dinner than could the Spaniards.1
No other information regarding this pearl seems available. The
valuation certainly appears excessive when compared with that of some
other pearls of that period.
We quote an item from Burgon,2 taken from the manuscript journal kept by Edward VI :
25
[April, 1551]. A bargaine made with the Fulcare for about 60,000 1.
that in May and August should be paid, for the deferring of it. First,
that the Foulcare should put it off for ten in the hundred. Secondly,
that I should buy 12,000 marks weight at 6 shilinges the ounce to be
delivered at Antwerpe, and so conveyed over. Thirdly, I should pay
100,000 crowns for a very faire juel of his, four rubies marvelous big,
one orient and great diamount, and one great pearle.
Rudolph II Pearls. The
scientific, art-loving, but eccentric Rudolph II (1552-1612), Emperor
of the Holy Roman Empire, gathered about him at Prague a great
collection of jewels and wealth of all sorts. The values of his pearls
and precious stones, of the gold and silver articles, was estimated by
the archaeologist, Jules Caesar Boulenger, at seventeen millions of
gold florins, which was a very considerable sum at that time, as
appears when we consider that one hundred gold florins annually was
deemed a good salary for an official at the emperor's court. De Boot
mentions a pearl belonging to Rudolph II which weighed "thirty carats
and cost as many thousands of gold pieces." It is quite likely that
this was the one noted by Gomara as coming from the Gulf of Panama,3
and which Rudolph probably inherited from his grandfather, Emperor
Charles V. The pearl bought by Oviedo in Panama, prior to 1526, may be
one of the principal decorations of the imperial crown of Austria.
We read in that curious and interesting book, "The Generali Historie of the Turkes," by Richard Knolles,4
that Abbas the Great, Shah of Persia (1557-1628), after having defeated
the Turks in many battles, desired to form an alliance with Emperor
Rudolph II, and to induce him to break his engagements with the Turks.
To this end Shah Abbas, in 1610 sent an embassy to Prague, with many
valuable gifts for the emperor, among which were "three orientall
pearles exceeding big." It has been conjectured, and it is also
claimed, that these may be three of the eight pear-shaped pearls which
are now to be seen in the crown of Rudolph II. One of the largest
pearls in the Austrian crown, as we have stated, is most probably the
Oviedo pearl.
