Intaglio: Probably Roman
Intaglio: Probably Roman
Description
GIMMEL RING FULL OF ENAMOURING SYMBOLISM
Gold ring composed of three flat, hinged and interlocking hoops. The inner hoop is plain gold, while the two exterior hoops are decorated with ridged lines and translucent green enamel. Attached to the exterior hoops are two ornate cuffed hands set with a lozenge-shaped yellow glass paste in table cut, framed by gold scrollwork with green enamel. A crowned heart in gold, attached to the central hoop, forms the bezel. It is ornamented with acanthus foliage with green enamel and inset with an oval pyrope garnet intaglio engraved with two birds—probably doves—holding a branch in their beaks. The crown is set with three table-cut almandine garnets in gold settings, with green-enameled acanthus foliage and scrolls on the sides and reverse. When the hoops are joined, the hands clasp the crowned heart. The ring shows age-related wear and remains in good wearable condition.
Provenance:
United Kingdom, The Jonest Collection, published in: Diana Scarisbrick and Sonja Butler, Marvels in Miniature, The Jonest Collection of Rings, London 2024, p. 76, no. 57.
Literature:
A new form of ring emerged in early modern Europe: the so-called gimmel ring. Composed of two or three interlocking hoops, this ring type became especially popular during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The term gimmel derives from the Latin word gemellus, meaning “twin.” Designs varied considerably. Some examples were set with paired gemstones—traditionally a ruby and a diamond, symbolizing love and loyalty—while others featured joined right hands, called mani in fede (hands in trust), emblematic of fidelity and often inscribed with betrothal or marriage vows.
The love symbolism of the present ring, with its heart clasped by hands in trust and surmounted by a crown signifying loyalty, suggests it was given to commemorate an intimate occasion such as betrothal or marriage. Garnets, whose name derives from the Latin granatum (pomegranate) as a reference to the fruit’s rich red color, were popular from the medieval and Renaissance periods onward. The gemstone was frequently regarded as a substitute for ruby and likewise associated with love; the pomegranate itself was an attribute of Venus, the goddess of love. This message of love is further reinforced by the intaglio depicting two doves holding a branch in their beaks. In ancient Greece and Rome, the dove was sacred to Venus (Greek Aphrodite) and often depicted in her retinue (see Lucia Impelluso, Nature and Its Symbols, Los Angeles, 2004, pp. 323–329; for symbols of love more broadly, see Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, The Power of Love: Jewels, Romance and Eternity, London, 2019).
Variants of this type with comparable iconography, such as hands holding a crowned heart, are preserved in various museum collections; see, for example, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Church 2011, figs. 46, 74); the Hashimoto Collection, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (Scarisbrick 2004, no. 223); and the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Swiss National Museum, Zurich (Chadour 1994, no. 735).