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DIAMONDS IN FASHION: II
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during the next reign and, in fact, brought many fine diamonds with her
from Spain. Her son, Charles II, was to see to it that the latter part
of his reign, known as the Restoration, was a glittering one, and the
leaders of fashion during this period included the famous Duchess of
Portsmouth.
But
decades later one of the most important glamor girls of all time was to
play a leading part in promoting jewel fashions, even if naively. She
was Emma Hart, better known as Lady Hamilton. Research among antique
jewelry merchants in New York has revealed some little-known facts
about the famous beauty. An old bill from the house of John Salter,
London, reproduced in an obscure book of Emma's memoirs, indicates that
her Ladyship purchased ninety-one pieces of jewelry, with a value at
that time of about $680,000, within a period of fourteen months and had
them all charged to her doting, seventy-year-old spouse, Sir William.
The bill was marked "Paid."
Emma's
passionate fondness for what she called "dy-monds" in her
correspondence may have been due partially to the fact that she was an
April child—the diamond was her birthstone. The first "set of dymonds"
owned by Emma was given to her by Sir William when he was British
ambassador to the court of Naples. The ambassador was a widower, well
fed, over fifty, and Emma Hart had just celebrated her twenty-first
birthday when she arrived with her mother in Naples.
In
the ecstatic letters which Emmy wrote back home— letters which ramble
on page after page and were written a few paragraphs at a time over a
period of weeks—she describes her appearance at state functions,
"where all the ladies vied to outshine each other but Sir William did
tell me that I was the finest gem among them." The diamonds
(183)
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