Possessions of one kind were often converted into another, according to changing fashions.  Philippa of Lancaster had a gold collar made “out of two bottles and a turret,” in 1380.

Mediaeval rosaries were generally composed of beads of coral or carnelian, and often of gold and pearls as well.  Marco Polo tells of a unique rosary worn by the King of Malabar; one hundred and four large pearls, with occasional rubies of great price, composed the string.  Marco Polo adds:  “He has to say one hundred and four prayers to his idols every morning and evening.”

In the possession of the Shah of Persia is a gold casket studded with emeralds, which is said to have the magic power of rendering the owner invisible as long as he remains celibate.  I fancy that this is a safe claim, for the tradition is not likely to be put to the proof in the case of a Shah!  Probably there has never been an opportunity of testing the miraculous powers of the stones.

The inventory of Lord Lisle contains many interesting side lights on the jewelry of the period:  “a hawthorne of gold, with twenty diamonds;” “a little tower of gold,” and “a pair of beads of gold, with tassels.”  Filigree or chain work was termed “perry.”  In old papers such as inventories, registers, and the like, there are frequent mentions of buttons of “gold and perry;” in 1372 Aline Gerbuge received “one little circle of gold and perry, emeralds and balasses.”  Clasps and brooches were used much in the fourteenth century.  They were often called “ouches,” and were usually of jewelled gold.  One, an image of St. George, was given by the Black Prince to John of Gaunt.  The Duchess of Bretagne had among other brooches one with a white griffin, a balas ruby on its shoulder, six sapphires around it, and then six balasses, and twelve groups of pearls with diamonds.

Brooches were frequently worn by being stuck in the hat.  In a curious letter from James I. to his son, the monarch writes:  “I send for your wearing the Three Brethren” (evidently a group of three stones) “...but newly set... which I wolde wish you to weare alone in your hat, with a Littel black feather.”  To his favourite Buckingham he also sends a diamond, saying that his son will lend him also “an anker” in all probability; but he adds:  “If my Babee will not spare the anker from his Mistress, he may well lend thee his round brooch to weare, and yett he shall have jewels to weare in his hat for three grate dayes.”

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the women wore nets in their hair, composed of gold threads adorned with pearls.  At first two small long rolls by the temples were confined in these nets:  later, the whole back hair was gathered into a large circular arrangement.  These nets were called frets—­“a fret of pearls” was considered a sufficient legacy for a duchess to leave to her daughter.

In the constant resetting and changing of jewels, many important mediaeval specimens, not to mention exquisite vessels and church furniture, were melted down and done over by Benvenuto Cellini, especially at the time that Pope Clement was besieged at the Castle of St. Angelo.