MEDIÆVAL RINGS AND BRACELETS OF all classes of mediÆval jewellery finger rings have been preserved in the greatest number. Among the various causes that have contributed to this result must be reckoned their very general use in former times, their comparatively small value, which often saved them from the melting-pot and the fact that they were almost the only articles of value usually buried with the dead. As regards the use and form of the finger ring during the Middle Ages, we find that it retains in the main its primitive symbolical character, being employed as an emblem rather than an ornament, to signify the investiture of office, the binding of the nuptial bond, and especially as a signet. Though the occurrence of numerous rings without a seal or other mark proves their general acceptance as purely ornamental articles, so deeply was the spirit of the age imbued with leanings towards the mysterious and the occult, that nearly every ring is an annulus vertuosus, supposed to be endowed with some talismanic or sanative efficacy. For convenience sake mediÆval rings may be separated into four main divisions: (1) ecclesiastical and devotional rings; (2) charm rings; (3) love and marriage rings; and (4) ornamental rings, including signets. Rings have always been looked upon with favour by the Church; they were worn regularly by the A jewelled ring was always worn by a bishop, and was an essential part of his costume when pontificating. It was specially made for him, and usually went with him to the grave. Hence it happens that many of these rings have survived, and are preserved both in museums—the collection in the Franks Bequest in the British Museum being the most extensive—and in the cathedrals where they have been found. PLATE XXIII image The episcopal ring was formerly worn on the right hand, but is placed at the present day upon the annular finger—the third finger of the left hand. Not more than one episcopal ring is now worn, but on sepulchral effigies and early pictures bishops are represented with three or four rings on the right hand, not infrequently upon the second joint of the fingers, and also upon the thumb. They were generally worn over the gloves, the backs of which were ornamented in addition with a large jewel. These rings were often, therefore, of considerable size, so that when worn without a glove a guard-ring was necessary to prevent their falling off. image Among the rings to be classed under the heading of religious or devotional rings, the most important are the so-called iconographic rings, that is, those which have on Devotional rings of the same date, and mostly of English workmanship, have broad hoops, some engraved with sacred monograms, some with holy names such as jesus and maria, and others with the names of the Three Kings, spelt in all manner of ways. Two exquisite English gold rings of this kind, dating from the first half of the fifteenth century, are in the British Museum. One, found at Coventry in 1802, is engraved with the five wounds of Christ, together with the legends describing them, and on the inside an inscription containing the names of the Three Kings of Cologne (Pl. XXIII, 4, 5). inscription Another form of religious or devotional ring which was sometimes used in place of the ordinary rosary of beads was the decade ring. This was so called from its usually having at intervals round the hoop ten knobs which were used for repeating ten Aves, and a head or bezel for the Paternoster. Finger rings, to an even greater extent than any other species of mediÆval jewellery, were designed to act The mystic virtues attributed to stones as well as to engraved gems during the Middle Ages has been frequently alluded to. Among the different stones (like the sapphire, for instance, the very word for which implies protection against drunkenness) carried in the bezel of the ring, which were supposed to make the wearer proof against evil influences, the most valued was the toadstone (Pl. XXIII, 9). It was supposed to be found in the head of a toad, but is in reality the fossil palatal tooth of a species of fish—the ray. A toadstone—also known as crapaudine and batrachites—in a ring was said to indicate the presence of poison by perspiring and changing colour. Toadstones were much sought after, and were highly prized, even in Shakespeare's day. Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. (As you like it, II, 1.) Ben Jonson alludes to the custom of wearing the stone in rings:— Were you enamour'd on his copper rings, His saffron jewel, with the toad-stone in't? (Volpone, II, 5.) In addition to the stones already mentioned, greatly valued was the Turkey-stone or turquoise, as the "Compassionate turcoyse, which doth tell, By looking pale, the wearer is not well." (Donne, Anatomie of the World.) It was his turquoise ring which Shylock would not have lost "for a wilderness of monkeys." The use of charm rings seems to have been not uncommon in early times. It was one of the articles of impeachment against Hubert de Burgh, the great justiciar of Henry III, that whereas the King had in Since such highly valued objects as charmed stones could only be obtained by a few, cabalistic inscriptions often took their place. Many of the devotional rings with the names Jesus, Mary, and Joseph engraved on them, were used as a preservative against the plague; but the most popular inscription was, as has been seen, the names of the Three Kings of the East, which were a powerful charm against peril by travel and sudden death. Such rings were worn against the cramp. There were also caract rings of superstitious use, which bore charms in the form of inscriptions, such as ananizapta. Many other rings of this class have cabalistic names and strange barbaric words and combinations utterly unintelligible. The fyancel or wedding ring appears to be of Roman origin, and was usually given at the betrothal as a pledge of the engagement. Two forms of these rings are the "gimmel" and the "posy" rings. Gimmel rings (French, jumelle, a twin) are composed of two hoops forming, when closed, one ring, and so constructed as to play when open one within the other. They are of two sorts: those which are either plain or set with precious stones, and those which have the device of the fede or two right hands joined. Inscriptions or mottoes, as a rule in Norman-French, are to be found on rings of the fourteenth, and more frequently on those of the fifteenth century. They were called "chansons" and also "resons" or "reasons," and later, poesies, posies, or posys. These love inscriptions, generally engraved on the outside of the ring (though placed inside in the sixteenth and A very extensive group of mediÆval finger rings is formed by signets. These are marked with some device, such as an animal, a bird, a tree, or any other object, so that they could be easily recognised; hence they were often given as credentials to a messenger. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries rings of silver, and occasionally of gold, occur, with a crest or coat-of-arms, or with devices in the form of initials, and certain arbitrary signs called merchants' marks, which were used by merchants and others not entitled to armorial bearings. Piers Plowman speaks of "merchantes merkes ymedeled in glasse." Such rings were often worn on the thumb. Though armorial signets were worn in Italy as early as the fourteenth century, they were not common in England till the commencement of the sixteenth. Somewhat similar are certain devotional signet rings of silver or base metal engraved with an initial—generally the letter I surmounted by a coronet. The I is probably the initial of the Saviour's name, such rings being worn from a belief in the efficacy of holy names as preservatives from evil. In connection with the mediÆval use of ancient engraved stones, the fashion of wearing Roman intaglios Rings which have the appearance of being purely ornamental were worn throughout the Middle Ages in considerable numbers both by men and women; yet at the same time it must ever be borne in mind that the stones set in them had probably in the eyes of the possessors a value quite independent of their use as ornaments. In the Gold Ornament Room of the British Museum is a collection of five English rings of silver of the twelfth century. They are of small intrinsic value, but of considerable interest as authenticated examples of ornamental rings of the period; for with the exception of those found on the fingers of prelates, the date of early rings is sometimes difficult to determine. The rings were dug up at Lark Hill, near Worcester, in 1854, together with upwards of two hundred pennies of Henry II. They probably date, therefore, from about the end of the century. image The peculiarity of many of the richer ornamental rings of this period is the tendency to place the stone upon a high case or stalk, so that the bezel is raised considerably above the hand. A curious example, dating from the fourteenth century, is in the Sauvageot Collection in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre. It shows two dragons' heads issuing from crown-shaped ornaments supporting a sapphire in a high collet. In the fifteenth century a large number of rings appear to have been habitually worn; and on the monument of Lady Stafford in Bromsgrove This notice of mediÆval finger rings may be concluded by drawing attention to a picture which, in view of the jewellery of the Middle Ages, is one of the most fascinating of all the productions of the Flemish school. The panel in question, the property of Baron A. Oppenheim, of Cologne, represents the legend of St. Godeberta and St. Eloy. It was painted in the year 1449 for the corporation of goldsmiths of Antwerp by Petrus Christus, who flourished in the first half of the fifteenth century, and died at Bruges about 1472. Appropriately enough, the patron saint of goldsmiths is figured in his shop; and the picture thus affords us a singularly interesting and attractive representation of the interior of a jeweller's shop in the middle of the fifteenth century with every detail of its glittering contents. St. Eloy or Eligius, whose figure, for all we know, may be the portrait of some well-known jeweller of the day, is seen seated at the goldsmith's bench, beside which stand Dagobert, King of France, and St. Godeberta. He is employed in weighing the ring with which the King seeks to Very carefully rendered is each item of the choice collection of objects that forms the goldsmith's stock-in-trade, exhibited on a stall covered with white linen on the left hand of the goldsmith-saint. Below is a box of rings, some plain, some mounted, ranged along three rolls of parchment. Beside them lie large pearls and precious stones, and seed pearls sorted in a shell by themselves. Behind, against the back, rest a branch of coral and oblong pieces of rock crystal and of opaque stone of porphyry-red. Above, on a piece of dark cloth, hang three splendid jewels—a pendant and two brooches, and next to them a pair of tooth-like pendants, probably glossopetrÆ. From the shelf on the top is suspended a string of red, amber, and pale blue rosary beads, and in the middle a girdle end of brown leather with buckle and mounts of gilded metal. The remainder of the collection, formed of various vessels, comprises a crystal cylinder set with gold and precious stones and a mounted cocoanut cup; and on the upper shelf a covered cup and a couple of tall flagons of silver parcel-gilt. This remarkable picture at once brings to mind that strangely interesting series of interiors afterwards produced by Quentin Matsys and Marinus van Romerswael, representing money-changers, bankers, or usurers busily engaged in counting up or weighing PLATE XXIV image BRACELETS Bracelets were as little in vogue as earrings during the Middle Ages, and remarks made concerning the latter apply also to bracelets, in that they only appear as the lingering traces of Byzantine fashions which, until the commencement of the twelfth century, made themselves strongly felt throughout the whole of Europe. In the National Museum at Munich is a gold armlet formed of two hinged halves covered with filigree and beaded ornament. Its outer rims are of twisted gold, and within are bands of fine plaited wire. It is adorned with bosses of filigree alternating with pyramidal projections. The origin of this fine ornament is unknown, but it probably dates from about the eleventh or twelfth century (Pl. XVIII, 6). The National Museum of Buda-Pesth contains a pair of very similar armlets. In connection with these ornaments the persistence of tradition in goldsmith's work is curiously seen, since armlets closely resembling the earlier examples are made and worn in Cairo at the present day. During the latter part of the Middle Ages it appears to have been a common practice for ladies to wear rosaries or chaplets of beads upon their wrists as bracelets. With these exceptions, the long sleeves that were worn throughout the greater part of the Middle Ages did not favour the use of an ornament that demanded the bare skin as a foundation. Ornamental circlets round the upper arm, which are not infrequently met with in pictures, must be regarded as gold-embroidered edgings or bands. It is true they were frequently set with pearls, stones, and decorations in gold, but as they were sewn upon the sleeves they have no actual claim to the name of armlets. Though there are other references to the use of bracelets in the fifteenth century, it was not until about the middle of the century following that this species of ornament came into general use. image |