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Gold Renaissance Ring with Emeralds, Spain, late 16th – early 17th century
Gold, enamel, emeralds
Weight 4.2 gr.; Circumference 46.68 mm.; US Ring Size 4, UK Ring Size H 1/2
Gold Renaissance Ring with Emeralds
Gold, enamel, emeralds
Spain, late 16th – early 17th century
Weight 4.2 gr.; Circumference 46.68 mm.; US Ring Size 4, UK Ring Size H 1/2
$14000.00
Gold ring with D-section hoop, widening towards the shoulders, is plain on the interior and on the exterior rounded with naturalistic foliage and capital-like ends. These extend and merge into a high, almost lozenge-shaped bezel with five high table-cut emeralds forming a cross with larger central stone. The hoop and foliate ornamented sides of the bezel have black and white enameling. The ring shows signs of wear through age and use, with traces of enamel. It is in in good wearable condition.
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Description
Gold ring with D-section hoop, widening towards the shoulders, is plain on the interior and on the exterior rounded with naturalistic foliage and capital-like ends. These extend and merge into a high, almost lozenge-shaped bezel with five high table-cut emeralds forming a cross with larger central stone. The hoop and foliate ornamented sides of the bezel have black and white enameling. The ring shows signs of wear through age and use, with traces of enamel. It is in 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. 124, no. 82.
Literature:
Variants of the gem-studded bezel in cross form can be found in the Alice and Louis Koch Collection in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich (Chadour, 1994, vol.1, nos. 762-765, especially close in style and use of emeralds no. 763 with further parallels). The cross-shaped bezel appears on rings found in Spanish shipwrecks of the first half of the 17th century, mostly set with emeralds. Cf. also a ring in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid (Letizia Arbeteta Mira, el arte de la joyería en la colecció Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid 2003, no. 184).
Spanish jewelry is known for the abundant use of emeralds, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though the tradition continued for longer. The Colonies in South America gave Spain access to immense quantities of gold and Columbian emeralds, found in the Chivor and Muzo mines. These were highly prized and traded globally, including with the Moghul rulers in India, see: exh. cat. Princely Magnificence, Court Jewels of the Renaissance 1500-1630, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1980, p. 16; Auct. cat. Gold and Silver of the Atocha and Santa Margarita, Christie’s, New York 1988, p. 44.
Cf. examples from other parts of Western Europe with diamonds (exh. cat. A Sparkling Age 17th century Diamond Jewellery, Antwerp 1993, no. 17) or rubies (Scarisbrick 2007, no. 343; Chadour 1994, vol. 1, nos. 762, 764).
The cross formation may have a devotional meaning. However, emeralds were symbolic of love and hope; thus the choice of gems may suggest the design is simply decorative and the ring was given as a love token.