Jewelry

UNIQUE MOURNING RING WITH A TOUCHING EULOGY TO A LOVED ONE

Gold band, convex on the exterior with white-enameled scrolling frieze and continuous inscription in black lettering, framed by ribbon-like gold borders: “Whom/ have/ [I in]/ [he]aven/ [b]ut the[e]/ [and there is]/ none/ [u]pon/ ea[rth]/ that I/ desire/ in co/[mparison]/ of thee” (Psalm 73:24 in Common Book of Prayer; a few words preceding this surviving inscription are now illegible). Finely engraved on the interior is a memorial inscription: “[Name?], ob. 25 Sept. 1756, aet. 28.” The double-oval punch bears the unidentified and rubbed maker’s mark “wc [?]” in lowercase Gothic letters. Identifying jewelers of this period is often difficult: in eighteenth-century England, small-scale jewelry makers were generally recorded at the Assay Office only if they were also silversmiths. The ring shows signs of wear through age with some losses to the fragile enamel, and is therefore more decorative than suitable for everyday wear.

Provenance

United Kingdom, The Jonest Collection, published in: Diana Scarisbrick and Sonja Butler, Marvels in Miniature, The Jonest Collection of Rings, London 2024, p. 171, no. 120.

Literature

This rare mourning ring commemorates the early loss of a loved one, who died on September 25, 1756 at the age of twenty-eight. Much cherished and worn as a remembrance, the ring’s inscriptions, both inside and out, gradually faded through prolonged use, leaving the identity of the deceased shrouded in mystery. The unusual choice of white enamel may offer a clue: while mourning rings were generally enameled in black, white was sometimes used to commemorate an unmarried woman.

In seventeenth- to nineteenth-century England, it was customary to leave funds in a will for mourning rings to be made and distributed among family and friends, typically with the name and dates of the deceased prominently displayed on the exterior. This ring, however, is deeply personal. The conventional memorial inscription is discreetly concealed inside the band, while the outside carries a biblical verse. Although parts of the lettering have faded and are now illegible, the surviving words suggest a Psalm passage from the Book of Common Prayer: “Whom have I in heaven but thee: and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee” (Psalm 73:24; the preceding, now-illegible portion may have included part of verse 23). Rather than simply recording a death, these verses read as an intimate and touching eulogy to a loved one, making the ring a deeply personal expression of grief and remembrance.

The ornamental banderole encircling the ring is an exceptional design and appears to be unique. Comparable examples more commonly feature friezes of enameled flowers, or the memento mori motif of a full-length skeleton with hourglass. Examples of these types can be found in the British Museum, London (Dalton 1912, nos. 1117, 1189, 1482, 1537, 1539, 1541), and Museum of London (inv. nos. 62.120/89, A18226). See also Scarisbrick 1993, p. 140; for the history of mourning and memorial rings, see Scarisbrick 2007, pp. 160–85, and Oman 1974, pp. 71–77.

R-1174