finger-ring
- Museum number
- AF.1869
- Description
-
Finger-ring; gold, hollow hoop with transverse ribs and rays on the shoulders, from each of which bifurcating supports rise to a boat-shaped bezel containing a cabochon sapphire held by four claws; round the hoop, legend in relief on a ground keyed for enamel.
- Production date
- 14thC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 1.25 inches
-
Weight: 100 grains
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Text from Dalton 1912, Catalogue of Finger Rings:
This might have been included in Class F (Inscribed Rings), but so much of its interest lies in its form and the style of its setting that it seemed best to keep it among rings of a similar appearance.
Text from Ward, Cherry et al, 'The Ring from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century,' London 1981, pl. 157.
The shoulders of the hollow hoop of this gold ring are decorated with ribs; from each of the ribs two supports rise to the prominent bezel in which a sapphire is held by four claws. The outside of the hoop is decorated with rays at the shoulders and a black-letter inscription reserved against a hatched ground that was formerly enamelled. The legend reads: ALS GOD WILS ACT BETER CM ('As god wills, do better cm'). The language clearly indicates an English origin, but the shape of the elaborate bezel and the use of curved supports to relate it to the hoop recall the ring found at Hornsey (Pl. 136).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1897
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- AF.1869
