Portrait of Johanna St.John - jewellery detail c1665

When John Michael Wright painted this beautiful portrait of Lady Johanna St.John (1631-1705) in c1665, pearls were still all the rage but as a lady of high social standing she wears a number of additional jewels, including in her hair.

Johanna’s ruby earring has a large drop pearl which matches her pearl necklace. A rope of pearls hangs from a square gold and sapphire pendant, while pearls zig zag down the front of her white silk dress. 

We cannot see Johanna’s hands, so can only presume she at least wore a wedding ring.

In his will her husband, Sir Walter St.John (d.1708), mentions jewels and rings which he bequeathed to his eldest son Henry. This may have included his wife’s jewels as well as his own. In her own will Johanna does not mention her jewels, it seems her real treasures are her receipt books. To ‘my daughter Cholmondeley I give my great Receit Book’ (this was her eldest daughter Anne), and to ‘my Grand Dtr Soame according to my promise I give my Booke of receits of cookery & Preserves’. (This was Johanna, wife of Sir Peter Soame, and daughter of Johanna and Walter’s daughter Johanna and George Chute).

She may have worn pearls, gold and sapphires, but for Johanna jewels also had a practical use as ingredients for her medicines. In her receipt book we find a recipe for ‘Gascons Powder’ (Gascoigne’s Powder), which required, amongst other ingredients, ‘perl 4 scruples white Amber one dram red coral one dram’. The powder was a popular cure all, and an expensive one!

See Items of Interest: Transcription of Gascons Powder