Part 7 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 149 and 150.]

A very early ring, with an unusual pretty poesy, is in the collection of J. Evans, Esq., F.S.A., and is engraved (Fig. 148). It is of gold, set with a small sapphire, and is inscribed--IE. SVI ICI EN LI'V D'AMI--[”I am here in place of a friend].” It was probably made at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Fig. 149 is chased with the Nortons' motto, ”G.o.d us ayde;” and Fig. 150 is inscribed withinside with the sentence, ”Mulier, viro subjecta esto.” Both are works of the fifteenth century.

In Bromsgrove Church, Staffords.h.i.+re, are the fine monumental effigies of Sir Humphrey Stafford and his wife (1450), remarkable alike for the rich armour of the knight and the courtly costume of the lady. She wears a profusion of rings, every finger, except the little finger of the right hand, being furnished with one. They exhibit great variety of design, and are valuable as exponents of the fas.h.i.+on of that day. We engrave in Fig. 151 the hands of the lady, as uplifted in prayer, with four of the rings, the full size of the originals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 151.]

Recurring to the ancient people whose sacred records gave us the earliest knowledge of the use of rings, we may profitably devote some attention to the very beautiful rings, formerly used by the Hebrews for betrothals and weddings. The Londesborough collection furnishes us with the two fine examples engraved in Figs. 152 and 153. They are often termed ”tower rings,” from the figure of the sacred temple placed on their summit. In the first specimen it takes the form of a s.e.xagonal building, with a domed roof of an Eastern character; in the second it is square, with a deeply pitched roof, having movable vanes at the angles, and is probably the work of some German goldsmith. Upon the roof of the first is inscribed in enamelled letters the best wish--”joy be with you”--that a newly-married couple would command. The same words are inscribed in more richly-designed letters on the curve of the second ring. Both are of gold, richly chased, enamelled, and enriched by filigree work, and are sufficiently stately for the most imposing ceremonial.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 152.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 153.]

A third Hebrew ring of less striking appearance, but of equal or greater curiosity, is also engraved from the same rich collection, in Fig. 154.

It bears on its surface a representation (in high relief) of the temptation of our first parents, who are surrounded by various animals, real and imaginary, their joint residents in Paradise. The workmans.h.i.+p of all these rings has been dated to the commencement of the sixteenth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 154.]

We close our series with a wedding-ring, commemorative of a marriage which excited the marked attention of the entire Christian community, as a vigorous protest against monkery by that ”solitary monk that moved the world”--Martin Luther. Renouncing the faith of Rome, he revoked his vow of celibacy, and completed his total severance from its creed by marrying a lady who had been once a nun, named Catharine Boren. The ring, here engraved, is that used on the occasion. It is of elaborate design and execution; a group of emblems of the Saviour's Pa.s.sion, the pillar, the scourge, the spear, and various other objects, combine with a representation of the Crucifixion, a small ruby being set in the centre of the ring above the head of the Saviour. We engrave this most interesting object of personal decoration as it appears to the eye, and also the full design _in plano_; beneath it are the names and date inscribed on the inside of the ring.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 155.]

CHAPTER III.

MODERN RINGS.

The period known as mediaeval commences with the fall of ancient Rome under the Gothic invasion, and concludes with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. The modern era therefore commences in the middle of the fifteenth century, during the reign of Henry VI.

As private wealth increased, finger-rings became much more ornamental; to the art which the goldsmith and jeweller devoted to them, was added that of the engraver and enameller. Fig. 156, from the Londesborough collection, is decorated with floral ornament, engraved and filled with green and red enamel colours. The effect on the gold is extremely pleasing, having a certain quaint sumptuousness peculiarly its own. Fig.

157 is a fine specimen, from the same collection, of a signet-ring, bearing ”a merchant's mark” upon its face. These marks varied with every owner, and were as peculiar to himself as is the modern autograph; they were a combination of initials or letter-like devices, frequently surmounted by a cross, or a conventional sign, believed to represent the sails of a s.h.i.+p, in allusion to their trading vessels. The marks were placed upon the bales of merchandize, and were constantly used where the coat-armour or badge of persons ent.i.tled to bear arms would be placed.

The authority vested in such merchants' rings is curiously ill.u.s.trated in one of the historical plays on the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth, written by Thomas Heywood, and to which he gave the quaint t.i.tle, ”If you know not me, you know n.o.body.” Sir Thomas Gresham, the great London merchant, is one of the princ.i.p.al characters, and in a scene where he is absent from home, and in sudden need of cash, he exclaims, ”Here, John, take this seal-ring; bid Timothy presently send me a hundred pound.”

John takes the ring to the trusty Timothy, saying, ”Here's his seal-ring; I hope a sufficient warrant.” To which Timothy replies, ”Upon so good security, John, I'll fit me to deliver it.” Another merchant, in the same play, is made to obtain his wants by similar means:--

”---- receive thou my seal-ring: Bear it to my factor; bid him by that token Sort thee out forty pounds' worth of such wares As thou shall think most beneficial.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 156.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 157.]

The custom must have been common to be thus used in dramatic scenes of real life, which the plainest audience would criticise. These plays were produced in 1606, and serve to show that the value attached to a seal-ring descended from very ancient to comparatively modern times.

In the Waterton collection is a ma.s.sive gold signet-ring, with the rebus of the Wylmot family quaintly designed in the taste of the fourteenth century. In the centre is a tree; on one side of it the letters WY, and on the other OT. Supposing the tree to be an _elm_, the name reads Wy-_elm_-ot, or Wylmot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 158.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 159.]

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries religious figures were frequently engraved on rings. Fig. 158 represents a ring upon which is very delicately engraved a representation of St. Christopher bearing the Saviour on his shoulder across an arm of the sea, in accordance with the old legendary history of this saint. The circle is formed by ten lozenges, each of which bears a letter of the inscription, =de boen cuer=.