Jewelry

INTRICATE BLACK-ENAMELED MARRIAGE RING WITH RENAISSANCE “PSEUDO DIAMOND”

Gold hoop with a D-section that widens toward the ends, featuring a feather-like black enamel ornament along the shoulders. The rectangular bezel is architectural in style with a scrollwork base. On the underside is an engraved and black-enameled diamond-shaped motif, with foliate decoration against a reeded background. Atop the bezel, in a collet setting with ridged border, sits a square, high table-cut rock crystal. The enamel shows some loss consistent with wear and age; otherwise, the ring 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. 126, no. 86.

Literature:

During the Middle Ages, rock crystal was highly revered for its hardness and brilliance and, considered a symbol of purity, it was frequently used to encase relics in both ecclesiastical and secular contexts. In the Renaissance, it came to be employed in place of diamonds in settings. By the 15^th century, literary references began to associate diamonds explicitly with marriage, marking the earliest evidence for diamond betrothal and wedding rings. As diamonds were rare and difficult to source, rock crystal—readily available from various parts of Europe, particularly the Alpine regions—was often set in such rings as an accessible substitute.

In fact, Thomas Nicols, don of Jesus College, Cambridge, described rock crystal in his 1652 lapidary as a “pseudo diamond” (Thomas Nicols, A Lapidary, or, The History of Pretious Stones with Cautions for the Undeceiving of Those That Deal with Pretious Stones, Cambridge, 1652, pp. 117–122). He praised its exceptional beauty, writing, “Had this gemm as much in duritie or hardnesse, as it hath in purity, excellency, and illustriousnesse of its beauty, no other gemm under the heavens would be comparable to the best Crystall for glory.” Nicols further noted that “Bowls and cups of Crystall are of great esteem with Princes,” and observed that certain specimens “sometimes are so hard and do so excellently sparkle, that they can scarce be distinguished from the Orientall Diamonds.”

Given the high esteem of rock crystal during the period in which this ring was made, its use here as a substitute for diamond in a betrothal or marriage ring seems entirely fitting. Like the diamond, rock crystal would have symbolized virtue, fidelity, and constancy for the future life of the wedded couple. The rectangular bezel set with a table-cut gemstone is a relatively common form; rarer, however, is the architectural style of the bezel’s base combined with the feathered ornamentation on the shoulders. A slightly earlier ring in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, appears to be a precursor for this design (see Church 2011, p. 35, fig. 37).

R-1157