The Etruscans used very largely the gold swivel ring mounted
with a scarab, a form of signet probably introduced from
Egypt. Some found in Etruscan tombs have real
Egyptian scarabs with legible hieroglyphs; others,
probably the work of Phoenician or native engravers,
have rude copies of hieroglyphs, either quite or partially illegible.
Etruscan rings.
A third and more numerous class of Etruscan signet rings have
scarabs, cut usually in sard or carnelian, which are a link
between the art of Egypt and that of Greece, the design cut
on the flat side being Hellenic in style,
while the back is shaped like the
ordinary Egyptian scarabaeus beetle.
One from Etruria, now in the British
Museum, is formed by two minutely
modelled lions whose bodies form the
hoop, while their paws hold the
bezel, a scarab engraved with a lion
of heraldic character. An alternative
type of Etruscan ring (as in
fig. 5) has an incised design on the
gold ibezel, or a fiat stone set in the
rigid bezel. In. either case the Etruscan rings tend to extravagance
in size and elaboration.
Fig. 5.
The Romans appear to have imitated the simplicity of Lacedaemonia. Throughout the republic none but iron rings were worn by the bulk of the citizens, and even these were forbidden to slaves. Ambassadors were the first who were privileged to wear gold rings, and then only while performing some public duty. Next senators, consuls, Roman rings. equites and all the chief officers of state received the jus annuli aurei. In the Augustan age many valuable collections of antique rings were made, and were frequently offered as gifts in the temples of Rome. One of the largest and most valuable of the dactyliothecae was dedicated in the temple of Apollo Palatinus by Augustus’s nephew Marcellus (Pliny, H.N. xxxvii. 5). The temple of Concord in the Forum contained another; in this collection was the celebrated ring of Polycrates, king of Samos, the story of which is told by Herodotus; Pliny, however, doubts the authenticity of this relic (H.N. xxxvii. 2).
Different laws as to the wearing of rings existed during the empire: Tiberius made a large property qualification necessary for the wearing of gold rings in the case of those who were not of free descent (Pliny, H.N. xxxiii. 8); Severus conceded the right to all Roman soldiers; and later still all free citizens possessed the jus annuli aurei, silver rings being worn by freedmen and iron by slaves. Under Justinian even these restrictions passed away.
In the rings of the Roman period the decoration is no longer an accessory of the bezel alone. It modifies the form of the hoop, which may be polygonal or angular (see fig. 6). The ring here figured is set with an eye, as an amulet, capable of turning on a swivel.
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| Fig. 6. | Fig. 7.—Roman silver rings. |
Fig. 8 |
In the 3rd and 4th centuries Roman rings were made engraved with Christian symbols. Fig. 7 shows two silver rings of the latter part of the 4th century which were found in 1881 concealed in a hole in the pavement of a Roman villa at Fifehead
Neville, Dorset, together with some coins of the same period. Both have the monogram of Christ, and one has a dove within an olive wreath rudely cut on the silver bezel. These rings are of special interest, as Roman objects with any Christian device have very rarely been found in Britain.
Fig. 8 is a choice example of a gold key-ring of the Christian period, with good wishes inscribed in pierced gold work—accipe dulcis, multis annis (Brit. Mus.).
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| Part of Fig. 9. | Part of Fig. 9. |
Fig. 9 is a gold ring from Smyrna (Brit. Mus.) with seven incised intaglio medallions, with a figure of Christ on the bezel. Assigned to the 5th century.
Large numbers of gold rings have been found in many parts of Europe in the tombs of early Celtic races. They are usually of very pure gold, often pen annular in form—with a slight break, that is, in the hoop so as to form a spring. They are often of gold wire formed into a sort of rope, or else a simple bar twisted in an ornamental Celtic rings. way. Some of the quite plain pen annular rings were used in the place of coined money.
Throughout the Middle Ages the signet ring was a thing of great importance in religious, legal, commercial and private matters.
The episcopal ring[1] was solemnly conferred upon the newly made bishop together with his crozier, a special formula for this being inserted in the Pontifical. In the earliest references to rings worn by bishops, there is nothing to distinguish them from other signet rings. In A.D. 610 the first mention has been found of the episcopal ring Episcopal rings. as a well-understood symbol of dignity. It is clear that it was derived from the signet. It was only in the 12th century and onwards that it was brought into mystical Connexion with the marriage ring. In the time of Innocent III. (1194) the ring was ordered to be of pure gold mounted with a stone that was not engraved; but this rule appears not to have been strictly kept. Owing to the custom of burying the episcopal ring in its owner’s coffin, a great many fine examples still exist. Among the splendid collection of rings formed by the distinguished naturalist Edmund Waterton, and now in the South Kensington Museum, is a fine gold episcopal ring decorated with niello, and inscribed with the name of Alhstan, bishop of Sherborne from 824 to 867 (see fig. 10).
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| Fig. 10—Ring of Bishop Alhstan. |
Fig. 11.—13th-century episcopal ring of Italian workmanship, of gold, set with a sapphire en cabochon. |
In many cases an antique gem was mounted in the bishop’s ring, and often an inscription was added in the gold setting of the gem to give a Christian name to the pagan figure. The monks of Durham, for example, made an intaglio of Jupiter Serapis into a portrait of St Oswald by adding the legend capvt s. oswaldi. In other cases the engraved gem appears to have been merely regarded as an ornament without meaning—as, for example, magnificent gold ring found in the coffin of Seffrid, bishop of Chichester (1125–1151), in which is mounted a Gnostic intaglio. Another in the Waterton collection bears a Roman cameo in plasma of a female head in high relief; the gold ring itself is of the 12th century. More commonly the episcopal ring was set with a large sapphire, ruby or other stone cut en cabochon, that is, without facets, and very magnificent in effect (see fig. 11). It was
- ↑ See a paper by Edm. Waterton in Arch. jour. xx. p. 224; also Cabrol, Dict. d’arch. chrétienne, s.v. “Anneaux.”
