gimmel-ring
- Museum number
- AF.1097
- Description
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Gimmel-ring; gold; enamelled; bezel, set with ruby and aquamarine, in form of quatrefoil flower with pendant leaves decorated with blue, black and white scrolls; inner faces of bezel decorated with scrolls; shoulders moulded in form of scrolls; inscription on inner surfaces revealed when ring opened.
- Production date
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16thC
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19th Century (?)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 1.15 inches
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Weight: 171 grains
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from Dalton 1912, Catalogue of Finger Rings:
The betrothal or wedding-ring of Sir Thomas Gresham, now exhibited in the Loan Court at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, by Mr. G. C. Leveson-Gower, is of similar design and bears the same legend.
For a similar gimmel ring see Chadour 1994 no 706
According to the Braybrooke catalogue, 'A splendid gold gimmel ring, with enamelled and jewelled twin or double hoops, which play one within another, like the links of a chain. Each hoop has one of its sides convex, the other flat, and each is set with a stone, one a fine ruby, the other an acqua marine or beryl, so that upon bringing together the flat surfaces of the hoops, the latter immediately unite in one ring, and as they close, the stones slide into contact, forming a head to the whole. The inside flat surfaces are inscribed with the words, "Quod deus conjunxit homo non separet:" part on one hoop, part on the other, so as to be legible when these are opened, but entirely concealed when they are re-united in one ring. This seems to be an exception to the general rule with respect to rings of the same denomination, since the hoops cannot be dissevered according to the usual custom of betrothals. Dr Nares however says, "Gimmel rings certainly had links within each other," and they were likewise known by the name of Hawberke, according to Morgan in his "Sphere of Gentry," evidently because hawberkes were composed of rings linked with each other like the present example. A fine one of gold, of similar construction, was found about sixty years ago, near Horsley Down, in Surrey, inscribed "Use de Vertu" (Archaeologia, vol 14 pg 7) The present specimen was purchased of Mr Durlacher, New Bond Street, May, 1856. Mr D. bought it at Paris, from a person who obtained it at Florence. The workmanship is Italian, and the date about the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. -162grs.' . .
The ring bears a French restricted warranty mark in use between 1819 and 1838, taking the date of this ring back before Lord Braybrooke's purchase in 1856: rare for this kind of ring.
- Bibliographic references
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Dalton 1912 / Franks Bequest Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Mediaeval and Later, Bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, KCB, in which are included the other rings of the same period in the Museum. (992)
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Braybrooke 1873 / Catalogue of Rings in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Braybrooke, Audley End (no 158)
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Tait 1976 / Jewellery Through 7000 Years (440b)
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Tait 1986a / Seven Thousand Years of Jewellery (810)
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Awais-Dean 2017 / Bejewelled: Men and Jewellery in Tudor and Jacobean England (p.83, p.84, fig.102)
- Location
- On display (G46/dc5/p4/no8)
- Acquisition date
- 1897
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- AF.1097