Arnold Lulls

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arnold Lulls (floruit 1580–1625) was a Flemish goldsmith and jeweller in London.

Career[]

He was born in Antwerp, and settled in London before 1585, and became a denizen of England in 1618.[1] Lulls was also involved in importing goods with other members of the family, his brother Peter Lulls of Hamburg and Hans Lulls. In 1597 they complained to Sir Robert Cecil about their cargo on the Griffin which was taken by the Earl of Cumberland and Sir Thomas Garrard.[2]

In May 1607 he and several residents in Billingsgate were exempted from paying a tax or subsidy.[3]

In 1604 he provided jewels to the Spanish ambassador, the Count of Villamediana to give to the ladies in waiting of Anne of Denmark. The Countess of Derby, Elizabeth de Vere received a jewel set with diamonds worth about £230 supplied by Lulls. The ambassador bought most of the jewels in Brussels.[4]

Lulls worked as a partner of John Spilman and William Herrick supplying jewels to the royal family. A bill from February 1605 includes, a rope of oriental pearls and a large round pearl for Anne of Denmark, a chain and St George for Prince Henry, a jewel for Prince Charles, two gold lockets with portraits given by Anne of Denmark to the French ambassador Christophe de Harlay, comte de Beaumont and his wife Anne Rabot.[5]

An account for jewels supplied by Lulls and Spilman to the royal family between August 1604 and March 1607 totals £2,772. Another list of jewels supplied by Lulls and Spilman includes items with the monograms "AR" and "JR" with thistles.[6]

In May 1605 Lulls was paid £1,550 and Philip Jacobson was paid £980 for jewels set with diamonds and two dozen buttons given to Anne of Denmark at the baptism of Princess Mary.[7]

He was fined in 1619 for exporting gold and silver and his fine was given to Sir James Erskine.

His daughter Susannah married John Newdigate, a son of the courtier Anne Fitton.[8][9] His son, also Arnold Lulls, died in 1618 and left a legacy of £10 to his cousin, Jane van Lore, daughter of Peter Vanlore.

Lulls album[]

Portrait by Paul van Somer showing a woman, possibly Elizabeth, Countess of Kellie wearing a feather or aigrette

Lulls is associated with an album of 17th-century goldsmith's drawings of jewels, on paper and on vellum, held by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A D6 1896).[10] The drawings are by three or four artists. A link to Lulls and his workshop is provided by an inscription in Dutch which says a jewel was an undesirable colour and could not be sold, so it would be returned to "my brother Peter Lulls and company", signed by "AL". The manuscript also includes a royal warrant to Lulls and Herrick from 1605.[11]

Such drawings were made as record drawings for inventories, or for use within a business as the Lulls inscription demonstrates, or when wealthy patrons commissioned jewels.[12] Some of drawings in the Lulls album depict gems at actual size.[13] A letter sent to Arthur Bodren, a page of Anne of Denmark, describes efforts to find diamonds and rubies in the royal Jewel House of the right size to suit a pattern drawn by a Mr Halle.[14] John Spilman made record drawings of the cut and settings of eleven diamonds which Anne of Denmark pawned in March 1615.[15]

Designs in the Lulls album for aigrettes or feather jewels have been associated with a portrait by Paul van Somer at the Yale Center for British Art, called Elizabeth Pierrepont, Countess of Kellie. The Countess of Kellie was not the Elizabeth Pierrepont who had served Mary, Queen of Scots. Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar made efforts to recover a feather jewel set with 49 diamonds which her daughter Catherine Erskine, Countess of Haddington had pawned.[16][17][18]

King James had a feather jewel made up with 26 large diamonds and smaller stones which he wore on his hat, and was depicted in several portraits following John de Critz.[19]

References[]

  1. ^ John Hayward, 'The Arnold Lulls Book of Jewels and the Court Jewellers of Anne of Denmark', Archaeologia, 108 (1986), pp. 228-9.
  2. ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 14 (London, 1923), p. 11.
  3. ^ HMC Laing Manuscripts in the University of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (London, 1914), p. 122.
  4. ^ Gustav Ungerer, 'Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and the Circulation of Gifts', Shakespeare Studies, vol. 26 (1998), p. 151.
  5. ^ John Hayward, 'The Arnold Lulls Book of Jewels and the Court Jewellers of Anne of Denmark', Archaeologia, 108 (1986), p. 230: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), pp. 48-9.
  6. ^ John Hayward, 'The Arnold Lulls Book of Jewels and the Court Jewellers of Anne of Denmark', Archaeologia, 108 (1986), p. 231: SP. Domestic James I, 1607-1610, pp. 338, 352: TNA SP 14/24 f.43, SP 14/26 f.200.
  7. ^ John Hayward, 'The Arnold Lulls Book of Jewels and the Court Jewellers of Anne of Denmark', Archaeologia, 108 (1986), p. 228: Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603-1610 (London, 1857), p. 217: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), p. 48.
  8. ^ Daniel Lysons, Historical Account of Those Parishes in the County of Middlesex, p. 114.
  9. ^ Anne Emily Garnier Newdegate, Gossip from a Muniment Room: being passages in the Lives of Anne and Mary Fytton, 1574–1618 (London: David Nutt, 1897), p. 154.
  10. ^ Michael Snowdin, 'Album of jewellery drawings', Anna Somers Cocks, Princely Magnificence: Court Jewels of the Renaissance (London, 1980), pp. 129-31.
  11. ^ John Hayward, 'The Arnold Lulls Book of Jewels and the Court Jewellers of Anne of Denmark', Archaeologia, 108 (1986), p. 228.
  12. ^ John Hayward, 'The Arnold Lulls Book of Jewels and the Court Jewellers of Anne of Denmark', Archaeologia, 108 (1986), p. 234.
  13. ^ John Hayward, 'The Arnold Lulls Book of Jewels and the Court Jewellers of Anne of Denmark', Archaeologia, 108 (1986), p. 234.
  14. ^ Diana Scarisbrick, 'Anne of Denmark's Jewellery Inventory', Archaeologia, vol. CIX (1991), p. 195, ("Halle" is perhaps "Lulls").
  15. ^ Calendar State Papers Domestic, James I: 1611-1618, p. 61: TNA SP14/80 f.88.
  16. ^ Diana Scarisbrick, Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery (London, 1995), p. 73: National Library of Scotland NLS MS. 5155/9.
  17. ^ Joan Evans, A History of Jewellery (London, 1970), pls. 98-9.
  18. ^ 'Elizabeth, Countess of Kellie', Yale Center for British Art
  19. ^ Roy Strong, 'Three Royal Jewels: The Three Brothers, the Mirror of Great Britain and the Feather, Burlington Magazine, 108:760 (July 1966), p. 351.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""