Rings

CELESTIAL BYZANTINE SAPPHIRE RING, CHARGED WITH POWER AND MYSTICISM

Gold ring with a circular hoop formed of a braided wire frieze, bordered on either side by milled wires and backed with gold sheet. The hoop supports a circular base with a high conical bezel set with a sapphire cabochon bead pierced with a drill hole. The ring shows signs of wear through age, including small losses to the gold sheet backing at one end of the hoop and traces of residue along the braided wire, possibly resulting from prior burial in the ground. The ring is 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. 104, no. 63.

Literature:

During the fourth century AD, the Roman Empire was divided into a Western Empire, governed from Rome until its collapse in the fifth century, and an Eastern Empire, later known as Byzantium, ruled by an emperor from Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The Eastern Empire prospered and grew steadily in power, enduring until its fall in 1453. Early Byzantine jewelry reflects influences from Late Roman traditions. Stylistically, however, the Empire increasingly looked eastward, incorporating Greek and Near Eastern influences into its goldwork.

Characteristic of the early Byzantine period, the present majestic ring, with its high bezel and filigree hoop, must have belonged to someone of high rank and status. Sapphires were among the most fashionable and highly prized gemstones in the Byzantine Empire, frequently set in elaborate necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, often combined with pearls. The presence of a drill hole, indicating that the stone was once a bead from a necklace or other ornament, increased the ring’s significance, the piercing itself being thought to enhance its magical or medicinal virtues (cf. C. Oman, British Rings 800–1914, London, 1974, p. 60). Such lavish jewelry was regulated in the Emperor Justinian I’s (483–565) Corpus Juris Civilis (529–534). There he decreed that pearls, emeralds, and hyacinths (sapphires) were to be “solely preserved for the splendor and adornment of the sovereign.”

Sapphires of this pale blue shade were probably sourced from Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), or possibly India. A related sapphire ring discovered in a tomb at Saint-Denis, together with two other Byzantine rings, shows a variation of the design (Musée d'Archéologie nationale et Domaine national de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, inv. no. MAN 87190, first half of the 7th century AD); see Hadjadj, 2007, p. 283, no. 351. A further comparable example, with a conical bezel set with a sapphire cabochon but with a solid hoop, is in the Ferrell Collection (Jeffrey Spier, Treasures of the Ferrell Collection, Wiesbaden, 2010, p. 251, no. 184, Byzantine, 6th century AD). Another related example, in gilded silver with a solid hoop and glass mosaic, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 7442-1860), and is thought to date to the Carolingian period, 9th century AD.

R-1150