Rings

Wide gold band with D-section, plain on the exterior and engraved on the interior in italic script the motto: Love & live happily. The ring shows signs of wear through age and is in good wearable condition. The maker’s mark in an oval punch inside the hoop shows the initials ‘JC’ (italic), the meaning of which has been lost.

Literature:

Posy rings derive their name from the term poésie or poetry. They are rings with mottoes either in prose or verse. Like here, the message was often concealed inside the hoop and its personal content only known to the giver and recipient. They find mention in plays by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), such as Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice, and enjoyed great popularity throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially as betrothal or wedding rings.

Here the inscription “Love & live happily” is a motto probably alluding to the union of the couple, wishing them love and happiness in their married life. Through the centuries posy rings were also known to be exchanged between lovers, friends, and family members expressing affection, friendship, faith, or even a Happy New Year.

Joan Evans records two examples with this inscription and six variants with the motto “Love and live happy” (Evans, J., English posies and Posy Rings: A Catalogue, with an Introduction, London: Humphrey Milford ,1931, pp. 71-72). The same motto “Love and live happily” appears on a ring in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 386-1864). Variants of the motto “Love and live happy” can be found in the Griffin Collection (Scarisbrick, D., I Like my Choyce: Posy Rings from the Griffin Collection, London: Ad Ilissum, 2021, nos. 60-61); Museum of London (inv. no. 62.4/59); British Museum, London (Dalton, O.M., Frank Bequest Catalogue of the finger rings, early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Mediaeval and later bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, London: Longmans & Co, 1912, nos. 1247, 1248, 1250) and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (AN1933.1600).

For a history of posy rings with extensive examples ranging from the medieval period to eighteenth century, see: Scarisbrick 2021 and for further information on posies: Evans, 1931; Anon., A Garland of Love: A Collection of Posy-Ring Mottoes, London 1907; Dalton 1912, pp. 174 ff.; Scarisbrick, D., Rings: Jewellery of Power, Love and Loyalty, London: Thames & Hudson, 2007, pp. 74 ff.; G. Taylor and D. Scarisbrick, Finger Rings from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day,1978; Oman, C., British Rings, 800-1914, London: Batsford, 1974, pp. 39 ff.

R-1102