page_title: Inventory of Henry VIII of England
section_title: Gold, silver, and jewels
hierarchical_section_title: Inventory of Henry VIII of England / Henry's collection / Gold, silver, and jewels
caption_attribution_description: English: The Royal Gold Cup. Română: Cupa de Aur Regală
context_page_description: The Inventory of Henry VIII of England compiled in 1547 is a list of the possessions of the crown, now in the British Library as Harley MS 1419.
  The inventory was made following a commission of 14 September 1547 during the first year of the reign of Edward VI of England. The surviving manuscripts list the possessions of Henry VIII of England item by item, by their location in houses. The armaments of ships and forts are also recorded. Altogether there are 17,810 items listed, and some of these entries contain multiple objects. Despite this abundance, only a very small number of objects survive and can be identified. The monetary values of the objects were not recorded, though the weights of many gold and silver items were given.
context_section_description: The inventory has 3690 entries for precious metals and stones. These include a coffer of Catherine Parr's jewels which remained at the Tower of London, amongst its contents were gold headresses set with pearls and diamonds (habillements); girdles with gold links set with diamonds, rubies and pearls; and two jewels fashioned with the initials HK, for Henry and Katherine. One more recent acquisition was the Three Brothers, a pendant of balas rubies, diamonds and pearls bought from Anton Fugger:
  "A jewell bought by the kinges Majestie of Anthony fulker and his company of Antewarpe in May 1551 and delivered to t'handes of the Earl of willteshere lorde treasurer of England by the kinges Majestie the VIIth day of June 1551.
  A fayer flower of golde having sett in the same three table ballaces sett withowte foyle, and between everey ballace a perle, and in the myddes betwene the three ballaces a large pointed Diamounte and a perle pendaunt at one of the ballaces."
   Edward VI was obliged to buy this jewel, which he described in his diary, for 100,000 crowns because the English crown owed £60,000 to the Fugger's bank. The enamelled Royal Gold Cup which survives in the British Museum is listed simply as; "a Cuppe of gold with Imagerie, the knopp a crowne Imperiall and aboute the bordre of the cover and the foote a Crowne garnished with lxii garnishing perles weying lxxix oz," and identified by its original number of pearls. The "knopp a crowne Imperiall" and "the bordre of the cover" with its pearls were lost at some point between the 17th and 19th centuries. Notes in the inventory record diplomatic gifts given and some incidents; in the summer of 1552, Edward VI lost a large pearl pendant from a gold chain while riding between Titchfield and Southampton. The pearl was found and returned in May 1553.
caption: The Royal Gold Cup, 23.6 cm high, 17.8 cm across at its widest point; weight 1.935 kg of solid gold, enamels and jewels, showing Saint Agnes appearing to her friends in a vision.
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