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Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Finger-ring
lore
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
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included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Finger-ring lore

historical, legendary, anecdotal

Author: F.S.A. William Jones

Release date: September 13, 2013 [eBook #43707]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

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generously made available by The Internet Archive.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FINGER-RING

LORE ***
 FINGER-RING LORE

LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET

FINGER-RING LORE
HISTORICAL, LEGENDARY, ANECDOTAL

BY

WILLIAM JONES, F.S.A.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

London
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1877

TO
MY WIFE:

Bon Cœur: Sans Peur.

 PREFACE.
I had intended to confine my observations exclusively to the subject
of ‘ring superstitions,’ but in going through a wide field of olden
literature I found so much of interest in connection with rings
generally, that I have ventured to give the present work a more
varied, and, I trust, a more attractive character.
The importance of this branch of archæology cannot be too highly
appreciated, embracing incidents, historic and social, from the
earliest times, brought to our notice by invaluable specimens of
glyptic art, many of them of the purest taste, beauty, and
excellency; elucidating obscure points in the creeds and general
usages of the past, types for artistic imitation, besides supplying
links to fix particular times and events.
In thus contributing to the extension of knowledge, the subject of
ring-lore has a close affinity to that of numismatics, but it possesses
the supreme advantage of appealing to our sympathies and
affections. So Herrick sings of the wedding-ring:
And as this round
Is nowhere found
To flaw, or else to sever,
So let our love
As endless prove,
And pure as gold for ever!
It must be admitted that in many cases of particular rings it is
sometimes difficult to arrive at concurrent conclusions respecting
their date and authenticity: much has to be left to conjecture, but
the pursuit of enquiry into the past is always pleasant and
instructive, however unsuccessful in its results. One of our most
eminent antiquarians writes to me thus: ‘We must not take for
granted that everything in print is correct, for fresh information is
from time to time obtained which shows to be incorrect that which
was previously written.’
My acknowledgments are due to friends at home and abroad, whose
collections of rings have been opened for my inspection with true
masonic cordiality.
I have also to thank the publishers of this work for the liberal
manner in which they have illustrated the text. Many of the
engravings are from drawings taken from the gem-room of the
British, and from other museums, and from rare and costly works on
the Fine Arts, not easily accessible to the general reader.
Descriptions of rings without pictorial representations would (as in
the case of coins) materially lessen their attraction, and would
render the book what might be termed ‘a garden without flowers.’
In conclusion I will adopt the valedictory lines of an old author, who
writes in homely and deprecatory verse:
for herde it is, a man to attayne
to make a thing perfyte, at first sight,
but wan it is red, and well over seyne
fautes may be founde, that never came to lyght,
though the maker do his diligence and might.
prayeing them to take it, as i have entended,
and to forgyve me, yf that i have offended.
 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE

I. Rings from the Earliest Period 1

II. Ring Superstitions 91
III. Secular Investiture by the Ring 177
IV. Rings in connection with Ecclesiastical Usages 198
V. Betrothal and Wedding Rings 275
VI. Token Rings 323
VII. Memorial and Mortuary Rings 355
VIII. Posy, Inscription, and Motto Rings 390
IX. Customs and Incidents in connection with Rings 419
X. Remarkable Rings 457
Appendix 499
 ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE

Egyptian gold signet-ring 2

Egyptian bronze rings 4
Egyptian signet-rings 6
Egyptian porcelain ring 9
Egyptian mummy, rings on the fingers of
10
an
Egyptian gold ring from Ghizeh 11
Etruscan ring with chimeræ 15
Roman-Egyptian ring 15
Modern Egyptian rings 17
Modern Egyptian ring with double keepers 17
Etruscan ring representing the car of
19
Admētus
Etruscan rings with serpents and beetle 19
Etruscan ring with scarabæus 20
Etruscan ring with representation of two
20
spirits in combat
Etruscan ring with intaglio 21
Greek and Roman rings 22
Late Roman rings 23
Ring found at Silchester 24
Ring of a group pattern 24
Ancient plain rings 24
Iron ring of a Roman knight 25
Roman ring, crescent-shaped 26
Roman ring of coloured paste 28
Gallo-Roman ring representing a cow or
29
bull
Roman thumb-ring 29
Roman ring, with a representation of
32
Janus
Roman ring, with figures of Egyptian
32
deities
Roman ring, with busts; from the Musée
33
du Louvre
Roman ring, with head of Regulus 34
Roman rings from Montfaucon 36, 37, 38
Roman ring in the Florentine Cabinet 39
Roman ‘memorial’ gift-rings 41
Anglo-Roman 41
Anglo-Roman and Roman rings 42
Roman rings found at Lyons 43
Roman bronze ring of a curious shape 44
Roman key-rings 45
Roman rings, with inscription and
47
monogram
Roman ‘legionary’ ring 47
Roman ‘legionary’ ring 48
Roman amber and glass rings 48
Byzantine ring, from Montfaucon 49
Byzantine ring, found at Constantinople 49
Rings from Herculaneum and Pompeii 49
Roman bronze ring 50
Roman ‘trophy’ ring 50
Roman ring, from the Museum at
50
Mayence
Roman key-rings 51
Roman, late, from the Waterton Collection 52
Anglo-Saxon rings 53
Early British (?) ring found at Malton 54
Ring of King Ethelwulf 54
Anglo-Saxon rings 58
Early Saxon rings found near Salisbury 59
South Saxon ring found in the Thames 60
Ancient Irish rings found near Drogheda 61
Early Irish gold ring 62
The ‘Alhstan’ ring 62
Anglo-Saxon ring found near Bosington 63
Rings found at Cuerdale, near Preston 64
Rings in the Royal Irish Academy 65
Spiral silver ring, found at Lago 66
Ring found at Flodden Field 66
Figured ring supposed to represent St.
67
Louis
Rings found in Pagan graves 68
Rings of the Frankish and Merovingian
69, 70
periods
Gold ‘Middle Age’ ring, from the Louvre 71
Rings on the effigy of Lady Stafford 72
Enamelled floral ring 75
‘Merchant’s Mark’ rings 75, 87
Ring of the sixteenth century 76
Ring of Frederic the Great 76
Venetian ring 76
Italian diamond-pointed ring 76
Italian symbolical ring 77
Venetian ring 78
East Indian ring, with drops of silver 78
Indian rings 79
Spanish ring 79
‘Giardinetti’ or guard rings 79
French rings of the fifteenth and sixteenth
80
centuries
‘Escutcheon’ ring, French 81
French rings 81, 82, 83
Moorish rings 82
Bavarian peasant’s ring 84
Thumb-rings 89, 90, 139
Divination-rings 101, 102
Roman amulet-rings 104, 105, 107
Astrological ring 108
Zodiacal ring 110
Amulet rings 126, 138, 141, 151, 152
Charm-rings 133, 153
Talismanic rings 134, 135, 136
Cabalistic rings 139, 147
Mystical rings 140
Rings of the Magi 143
Rings with mottoes, worn as medicaments 148
Rings, Runic 150
Toadstone rings 157, 158
Cramp rings 163, 165
Serjeant’s ring 190
Ring of the ‘Beef Steak’ Club 193
The Fisherman’s Ring 199
Ring of Thierry, Bishop of Verdun 204
Ring of Pope Pius II. 206
Papal rings 208
Episcopal rings 217, 226, 230, 231
Episcopal thumb-ring 219
Ring of Archbishop Sewall 225
Ring of Archbishop Greenfield 225
Ring of Bishop Stanbery 226
Decade ring with figure of St. Catherine
249
(?)
Decade thumb-ring 249
Silver decade ring 250
Decade ring found near Croydon 250
Decade signet-ring 251
Decade rings 251, 252
Decade ring of Delhi work 253
Trinity ring 254
254, 255, 256, 260,
Religious rings
261, 262, 263
‘Paradise’ rings 257
Reliquary ring 257
 258, 259, 268, 269,
Early Christian rings
270, 271, 272, 273
Ecclesiastical ring 264
Pilgrim ring 264
Roman key-rings 294
Hebrew marriage and betrothal rings 299, 300, 302
Byzantine ring 304
Betrothal ring 307
Half of broken betrothal ring 309
Jointed betrothal ring 314
Gemmel ring, found at Horselydown 316
Ring with representation of Lucretia 318
Wedding-ring of Sir Thomas Gresham 319
Gemmel ring 319
‘Claddugh’ ring 320
Betrothal ring with sacred inscription 321
Devices on wedding rings 322
The ‘Devereux’ ring 338
The ‘Essex’ ring 342
Old mourning ring 360
Memorial rings, Charles I. 366, 367, 370
Royalist memorial ring 370
Memorial and mortuary rings 373
Squared-work diamond ring found in
380
Ireland
Mortuary rings at Mayence 381, 382
Gold rings from Etruscan sepulchres 383
Ring found at Amiens 383
Ring found in the tomb of William Rufus,
385
Winchester Cathedral
Ring discovered in Winchester Cathedral 385
Ring of Childeric 386
Motto and device rings 390, 406
Posy-ring 391, 417
Inscription rings 410, 411, 412, 417
New Year’s gift ring 421, 422
Poison-rings 433
Dial-rings 452, 453
Signet-ring of Mary, Queen of Scots, and
460
the Darnley ring
Supposed ring of Roger, King of Sicily 465
The Worsley seal-ring 467
Ring of Saint Louis 469
Ring-devices of the Medici family 472, 473
Ring found at Kenilworth Castle 474
Heraldic ring 481
Martin Luther’s betrothal and marriage
481, 482, 483
rings
Shakspeare’s ring (?) 484
Initials of Sir Thomas Lucy, at Charlecote
486
Hall
Ivory-turned rings 488
Squirt ring 494
FINGER-RING LORE.
 CHAPTER I.
RINGS FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD.
The use of signet-rings as symbols of great respect and authority is
mentioned in several parts of the Holy Scriptures, from which it
would seem that they were then common among persons of rank.
They were sometimes wholly of metal, but frequently the inscription
was borne on a stone, set in gold or silver. The impression from the
signet-ring of a monarch gave the force of a royal decree to any
instrument to which it was attached. Hence the delivery or transfer
of it gave the power of using the royal name, and created the
highest office in the State. In Genesis (xli. 42) we find that Joseph
had conferred upon him the royal signet as an insignia of authority.
[1] Thus Ahasuerus transferred his authority to Haman (Esther iii.
12). The ring was also used as a pledge for the performance of a
promise: Judah promised to send Tamar, his daughter-in-law, a kid
from his flock, and for fulfilment left with her (at her desire) his
signet, his bracelet, and his staff (Genesis xxxviii. 17, 18).
Darius sealed with his ring the mouth of the den of lions (Daniel vi.
17). Queen Jezebel, to destroy Naboth, made use of the ring of
Ahab, King of the Israelites, her husband, to seal the counterfeit
letters ordering the death of that unfortunate man.
The Scriptures tell us that, when Judith arrayed herself to meet
Holofernes, among other rich decorations she wore bracelets, ear-
rings, and rings.
The earliest materials of which rings were made was of pure gold,
and the metal usually very thin. The Israelitish people wore not only
rings on their fingers, but also in their nostrils[2] and ears. Josephus,
in the third book of his ‘Antiquities,’ states that they had the use of
them after passing the Red Sea, because Moses, on his return from
Sinai, found that the men had made the golden calf from their wives’
rings and other ornaments.
Moses permitted the use of gold rings to the priests whom he had
established. The nomad people called Midianites, who were
conquered by Moses, and eventually overthrown by Gideon
(Numbers xxxi.), possessed large numbers of rings among their
personal ornaments.
The Jews wore the signet-ring on the right hand, as appears from a
passage in Jeremiah (xxii. 24). The words of the Lord are uttered
against Zedekiah: ‘though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, King of
Judah, were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck thee
thence.’
We are not to assume, however, that all ancient seals, being signets,
were rings intended to be worn on the hand. ‘One of the largest
Egyptian signets I have seen,’ remarks Sir J. G. Wilkinson, ‘was in
possession of a French gentleman of Cairo, which contained twenty
pounds’ worth of gold. It consisted of a massive ring, half an inch in
its largest diameter, bearing an oblong plinth, on which the devices
were engraved, 1 inch long, 6⁄10ths in its greatest, and 4⁄10ths in its
smallest, breadth. On one side was the name of a king, the
successor of Amunoph III., who lived about fourteen hundred years
before Christ; on the other a lion, with the legend “Lord of Strength,”
referring to the monarch. On one side a scorpion, and on the other a
crocodile.’
This ring passed into the Waterton Dactyliotheca, and is now the
property of the South Kensington Museum.
 Egyptian Bronze Rings.
Rings of inferior metal, engraved with the king’s name, may,
probably, have been worn by officials of the court. In the
Londesborough collection is a bronze ring, bearing on the oval face
the name of Amunoph III., the same monarch known to the Greeks
as ‘Memnon.’ The other ring, also of bronze, has engraved on the
face a scarabæus. Such rings were worn by the Egyptian soldiers.
In the British Museum are some interesting specimens of Egyptian
rings with representations of the scarabæus,[3] or beetle. These
rings generally bear the name of the wearer, the name of the
monarch in whose reign he lived, and also the emblems of certain
deities; they were so set in the gold ring as to allow the scarabæus
to revolve on its centre, it being pierced for that purpose.
Colonel Barnet possesses an Egyptian signet-ring formed by a
scarabæus set in gold. It was found on the little finger of a splendid
gilded mummy at Thebes. In all probability the wearer of the ring
had been a royal scribe, as by his side was found a writing-tablet of
stone. On the breast was a large scarabæus of green porphyry, set
in gold.
The Rev. Henry Mackenzie, of Yarmouth, possesses an Egyptian
scarabæus, a signet-ring, set with an intaglio, on cornelian, found in
the bed of a deserted branch of the Euphrates, in the district of
Hamadân in Persia. The engraving is unfinished, the work is polished
in the intaglio, and the date has therefore been supposed not later
than the time of the Greeks in Persia, circa 325 b.c.
 Egyptian Signet-rings.
The representations here given illustrate the large and massive
Egyptian signet-ring, and also a lighter kind of hooped signet, ‘as
generally worn at a somewhat more recent period in Egypt. The gold
loop passes through a small figure of the sacred beetle, the flat
under-side being engraved with the device of a crab.’
In the British Museum, in the first Egyptian Room, is the signet-ring
of Queen Sebek-nefru (Sciemiophris). ‘Sebek’ was a popular
component of proper names after the twelfth dynasty, probably
because this queen was beloved by the people. On Assyrian
sculptures are found armlets and bracelets; rings do not appear to
have been generally worn.
At a meeting of the Society of Biblical Archæology, in June 1873, Dr.
H. F. Talbot, F.R.S., read an interesting paper on the legend of ‘Ishtar
descending to Hades,’ in which he translated from the tablets the
goddess’s voluntary descent into the Assyrian Inferno. In the
cuneiform it is called ‘the land of no return.’ Ishtar passes
successively through the seven gates, compelled to surrender her
jewels, viz. her crown, ear-rings, head-jewels, frontlets, girdle,
finger- and toe-rings, and necklace. A cup full of the Waters of Life is
given to her, whereby she returns to the upper world, receiving at
each gate of Hades the jewels she had been deprived of in her
descent.
Mr. Greene, F.S.A., has an Egyptian gold ring, formerly in the
possession of the late Mr. Salt, belonging to the nineteenth dynasty,
probably from the Lower Country, below Memphis. It is engraved
with a representation of the goddess Nephthis, or Neith. Another
gold ring of a later period, from the Upper Country, dates, probably,
from the time of Psammitichus, b.c. 671 to 617.
In the collection of Egyptian antiquities formed by the late R. Hay,
Esq., of Limplum, N.B., were two Græco-Egyptian gold rings, found,
it is conjectured, in the Aasa-seef, near Thebes. One of these is of
the usual signet form, but without an inscription; the other is of an
Etruscan pattern, and is composed of a spiral wire, whose
extremities end in a twisted loop, with knob-like intersections. Both
these objects are of fine workmanship, and are wrought in very pure
gold. Sir J. G. Wilkinson, in ‘Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians,’ remarks: ‘The rings were mostly of gold, and this metal
seems always to have been preferred to silver for rings and other
articles of jewellery. Silver rings are, however, occasionally to be met
with, and two in my possession, which were accidentally found in a
temple at Thebes, are engraved with hieroglyphics, containing the
name of the royal city. Bronze was seldom used for rings; some have
been discovered of brass and iron (of a Roman time), but ivory and
blue porcelain were the materials of which those worn by the lower
classes were usually made.’
The Rev. C. W. King observes: ‘I have seen finger-rings of ivory of
the Egyptian period, their heads engraved with sphinxes and figures
of eyes cut in low relief as camei, and originally coloured.’
The porcelain finger-rings of ancient Egypt are extremely beautiful,
the band of the ring being seldom above one eighth of an inch in
thickness. Some have a plate in which in bas-relief is the god Baal,
full-faced, playing on the tambourine, as the inventor of music;
others have their plates in the shape of the right symbolical eye, the
emblem of the sun, of a fish of the perch species, or of a scarabæus.
Some few represent flowers. Those which have elliptical plates with
hieroglyphical inscriptions bear the names of Amen-Ra, and of other
gods and monarchs, as Amenophis III., Amenophis IV., and
Amenmest of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. One of these
rings has a little bugle on each side, as if it had been strung on the
beaded work of a mummy, instead of being placed on the finger.
Blue is the prevalent colour, but a few white and yellow rings, and
some even ornamented with red and purple colours, have been
discovered. It is scarcely credible that these rings, of a substance
finer and more fragile than glass, were worn during life, and it
seems hardly likely that they were worn by the poorer classes, for
the use of the king’s name on sepulchral objects seems to have been
restricted to functionaries of state. Some larger rings of porcelain of
about an inch in diameter, seven-eighths of an inch broad, and one-
sixteenth of an inch thick, made in open work, represents the
constantly-repeated lotus-flowers, and the god Ra, or the sun,
seated and floating through the heavens in his boat.
At the Winchester meeting of the Archæological Institute in 1845 a
curious swivel-ring of blue porcelain was exhibited, found at Abydus
in Upper Egypt; setting modern. It has a double impression: on the
one side is the king making an offering to the gods, with the
emblems of life and purity; on the other side the name of the
monarch in the usual ‘cartouche,’ one that is well known, being that
of Thothmes III., whom Wilkinson supposes to have been the
Pharaoh of Exodus. It is worthy of remark that this cartouche is
‘supported’ by asps, which are usually considered to be the
attributes of royalty.

Egyptian Porcelain Ring.

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