Weighty, pricey tome looks at England's crown jewels

By Graham Heathcote, Associated Press writer

It took eight art historians and gemologists 15 years to write "The Crown Jewels: The History of the Coronation Regalia," and each copy retails for as much as a small gem -- about $1,600.

The limited-edition, two-volume set comes in a red slipcase and weighs nearly 40 pounds. It is 1,200 pages -- with 400 pictures -- about the Crown Jewels of England, used at every coronation of a British monarch for 300 years.

Two million visitors view the jewels each year at the Tower of London.

"The Crown Jewels have never been catalogued before, although there have been thousands of publications about them in various languages," said Claude Blair, editor of the book and former keeper of metalwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum. "We've put down the entire history of the coronation in England and examined every piece in the Jewel House and put in the legends as well -- and there are plenty of those."

One piece, the royal scepter, contains the 516-carat Star of Africa, cut from the 3,106-carat Cullinan, the biggest diamond ever found. Legend has it that mine chairman Thomas Cullinan sent it to King Edward VII from South Africa in the early 1900s by parcel post.

"I know the Royal Mail was very reliable in those days," said Shirley Bury, who helped catalog the jewels, "but I have my doubts about that."

England has had kings and crowns from Anglo-Saxon times, centuries before the foundation of the "modern" dynasty by William the Conqueror in 1066. The first record of a coronation is from 785 for Egferth, King of Mercia.

But after the Civil War and execution of King Charles I in 1649, the victorious Puritans of Oliver Cromwell eliminated one possible encouragement to a royalist revival by breaking up the items that made up the Crown Jewels, melting the plate and selling the gems.

The present-day treasures date only from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, except for a medieval spoon that apparently survived because it was considered worthless.

There are 11 crowns and diadems, four scepters, two orbs, three rings, bracelets, spurs, a rod, a staff, an ampulla and six swords. There also are maces, trumpets and banners, and lots of gold and silver plate for post-coronation banquets.

The Imperial State Crown alone, worn by Queen Elizabeth II to open each new session of Parliament, contains 2,785 diamonds, 277 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and five rubies. The Queen's Crown made for Queen Alexandra in 1901 has 3,688 diamonds.

To catalog the jewels, Blair's team could work in the Tower of London only during the two weeks of the year the Jewel House closes for cleaning.

"It was pretty scary doing it under guard," said Mrs. Bury, a jewelry expert. "I was surprised by how many diamonds there are and how often the crowns were remade for the varying shapes of heads. A crown, after all, is really a hat which has to fit."

The Stationery Office, the book's publisher, limited it to just 650 sets. It will be available Oct. 29.

One thing the book doesn't include is value estimates for the gems.

"The largest gems are worth millions in themselves," Blair said. "But their association with the Crown Jewels gives them a dimension of fantasy in money terms."