Paternoster for the Queen of the East

The paternoster for the Queen of the East is made of amethyst ave beads with tigereye gaud beads and a crown pendant.  The tigereye is a cheat – I was stunned to discover how difficult it was to find a tiger pendant when I really needed one, so I went in a different direction to work the Eastern tiger into the paternoster.  I have no documentation of tigereye being used in European medieval and Renaissance jewelry.  The amethyst, on the other hand, is documentable.  The 1580 inventory of the belongings of Jacobaea, the dowager Duchess of Bavaria, included an amethyst paternoster with gold gaud beads.  A 1547 inventory of Anna, Queen of Hungary, Bohemia, Rome and Archduchess of Austria, includes a paternoster of the same materials (Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhoechsten Kaiserhauses, volume 5, 1887.)

Paternoster for the Queen of Northshield

The paternoster I made for the Queen of Northshield isn’t as flashy as some of the others, but I think it’s quite pretty and classic, and it represents one of my favorite combinations in paternosters, jet-black and silver.  I suspect from the photo (since it’s been several months) that I ended up using black glass beads rather than actual jet in the paternoster, and the silver is actually pewter (from Billy and Charlie’s).  The use of jet with silver gauds comes up frequently in English wills in the 15th and 16th centuries. The 1546 will of Thomas Denman leaves “to Elsebeth Wilson a pare of jeatt beades, with silver gawdies.” (Testamenta Eboracensia: A Selection of Wills from the the Registry at York.  Vol. VI., 239) Isabell Grymston willed “a pair of gett bedes gawded wt silver” to her daughter Elis Colynson in 1479 (Testamenta Eboracensia: A Selection of Wills from the Registry at York, Vol III., 253)  Among the paternosters that Richard Knight of York left his daughter Agnes in 1435 were two paternosters of jet beads with silver gaud beads.  (Testamenta Eboracensia: A Selection of Wills from the Registry at York, Part II, 201)

 

Paternoster for the Queen of the Outlands

This little paternoster was one of the stars of the show for me. I can’t claim any great knowledge of the Outlands, but the pieces just came together.

The beads are glass, but they are that honey color that resembles lighter colored amber from a distance. There’s a lot of documentation out there for both amber paternosters, including all three of the paternosters found in Ireland that I’m aware of. In my study of transcribed English wills and inventories from the 13th to 16th centuries, I have found no less than 50 amber paternosters mentioned. Though not as numerous, there are also scattered references to glass paternoster beads. Jewelry research tells us that there was a market for fake gems, so using glass to look like more valuable amber is certainly probable.

           

Although the stag pendant is a specific reference to the heraldry of the Outlands, it’s also a reasonable paternoster charm. In 1390, Marguerite of Burgundian gifted a paternoster that included a white enameled pendant of a doe (Lightbown, Medieval European Jewellery, pg. 55.

Paternoster for the Queen of Trimaris

Blue glass is noted specifically as a paternoster material in two English documents separated by over 200 years. In 1381, the inventory of a London goldsmith’s shop noted 14 paternosters of blue glass with silver-gilt gaud beads (Lightbown, Medieval European Jewellery). The appraisers who completed an inventory of the Tower of London in 1600 for Queen Elizabeth I noted the presences of seven sets of blue glass prayer beads among the hundreds they found there (Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Honorable Honorable, the Marquess of Salisbury).

Paternoster for the Queen of the West

The paternoster for the Queen of the West was one of the ones where materials were decided more by expense and color than documentation. The green beads came out of an assortment and are treated to get that hue, so I can’t vouch for what kind of stone they are. The challenge for each of these paternosters was finding something that would draw on the heraldry of the kingdom and my knowledge of what prayer beads should look like. I decided on the sun gaud beads for the west because, while I don’t have any documentation for suns in paternosters, there are stars shaped similarly, like the one pictured in the Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves.

Paternoster for the Queen of An Tir

As I posted before (a long long time ago), I made paternosters for the Queens’ Tea at Pennsic at the request of HRM Julianna. This is the one that I made for the Queen of An Tir.

The paternoster is strung on red silk, as was Lady Anne Scrope’s, which she disposed of in her 1498 will (Lightbown, Medieval European Jewellery, pg. 77). It is leftover luceted cord from another project, so I cannot document the specific cord type. The ave beads are what I will honestly call a random white stone – they came an assortment, were the right shape and size to go with the citrine to get the yellow and white that are on An Tir’s device, and there are lots of references to paternosters of white, such as chalcedony. The gauds are faceted citrine. The 1542 Inventaire de François de La Trémoille lists a paternoster of citrine. I don’t have any examples specifically of faceted citrine, but the exhibition catalog Edelsteine, Himmelsschnüre. Rosenkranze & Gebetsketten from Salzburg shows dozens of paternosters that include faceted beads. The pendants are pewter lions that I acquired. I cannot speak to documentation of the specific design or role as pendants, but Charles V had a paternoster “with little lions of white amber.” (Lightbown, Medieval European Jewellery, 351).