How to hype a ring: the ‘Edward de Vere’ ring and the evidence

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Ancient jewellery, European jewellery

an elizabethan ring and the evidence

How to hype a ring: the ‘Edward de Vere’ ring

Published Sept 4, 2026

Sometimes, I come across a piece of jewellery that puzzles me. The other day, I spotted a gold ring offered by Berganza London as the ‘Historic Ring of Edward de Vere’. Set with a carnelian intaglio depicting a male bust in the likeness of a Roman emperor, it is a beautiful and rare piece of Elizabethan jewellery.

But how do we know this is really the ring of Edward de Vere?

I started reading the description, then went looking for the archaeological find record. And somewhere between what we know about the ring and what has been suggested about its former owner, I felt the leap from evidence to interpretation had become rather large, and so I wanted to take you along to separate fact from story!

The Elizabethan gold ring and its intaglio

The ring itself is a gold ring, with a beautifully decorated shank and bezel in a foliage design. The ring is set with an engraved carnelian, showing a bust of a bearded man, wearing a coronet with large radiating points. This is an ornament borrowed from Roman times, when notably the god Sol was depicted with such a head ornament: they are stylized rays of sun. That fits with the time period the ring was made: from the 16^th century onwards, people of the upper layers in society began to take an interest in Classical Antiquity. It’s a beautiful piece, and it is absolutely rare.

See the ring, a parallel, and a cast of the intaglio here

But on Berganza’s website, it is listed as ‘Historic Ring of Edward de Vere’ and the page title itself says ‘Elizabethan piece of jewellery Edward de Vere’. Edward de Vere was a confidant and favourite of Elizabeth I, which leads to the description of this piece being ‘an important piece of Elizabethan history’.

Wait, how did we arrive at this very specific attribution?

Where was the ‘Edward de Vere’ ring found?

For that, we need to retrace the find circumstances. Where did this piece of jewellery come from?

As mentioned on the website, it was found by a metal detectorist in 2018 ‘near Hedingham Castle in Essex’.

But what is ‘near’? That is a conspicuously vague term, so I looked up the Portable Antiquities Scheme Database. In the UK, metal detectorist finds need to be registered, and so there is a find record of the ring here. You’ll find it listed in the references below this blog. Side note: this record is not referenced on the Berganza site. The find spot is given as the Greenstead Green and Halstead Rural parish – so not an exact location, but the parish it was found in. That is not unusual, and I assume the exact coordinates of the find are known with PAS.

Hedingham Castle is not located in that parish, though, but in (unsurprisingly) Castle Hedingham Parish. That is roughly 2 miles from the parish boundary listed as the find spot, so ‘near’ is still an hour’s or so walk away.

The PAS record further lists that the find fulfilled the requirements of the Treasure Act, but was disclaimed as Treasure in 2020 following further research and returned to the finder.

Why has the ring been linked to Edward de Vere?

Now to the Edward de Vere part.

Hedingham Castle is the ancestral castle of Edward de Vere. And because it was found ‘near’ the castle, it was assumed to be associated with its famous inhabitant. The video on this particular ring shown on Berganza’s Instagram (see it here) even suggests ‘an intimate likeness’ between the carving on the intaglio and the few surviving portraits of De Vere.

So, a ring with an intaglio that was fashionable in court circles at that time, found a considerable distance from Hedingham Castle, shows an intimate likeness to a man of whom very few portraits survive? Dating a ring to the Elizabethan period is one thing. Attributing it to a particular Elizabethan individual requires another level of evidence, I think.

To be fair, Berganza is appropriately careful in their wording. The description uses phrases such as ‘it has been suggested’ and ‘thought to have been commissioned and owned’, so the connection with Edward de Vere is never explicitly presented as established fact. I appreciate that distinction.

At the same time, the overall presentation points quite strongly in that direction. The ring is listed as the ‘Historic Ring of Edward de Vere’ in the listing page’s title tag you see in your browser’s tab, the page title identifies it as an ‘Elizabethan piece of jewellery Edward de Vere’, and the description concludes: ‘We rarely acquire a piece so historically connected and in such remarkable, museum quality condition.’

So while the individual claims are carefully qualified, the cumulative effect is rather more confident. A possible association gradually starts to feel like a provenance, but in reality, we do not know how historically connected this ring is.

And there is more!

From Edward de Vere to Shakespeare

There is a theory that Edward de Vere is actually none other than William Shakespeare: William Shakespeare would have been the pseudonym under which he penned famous works such as Macbeth.

And here the layers of possibility start to pile up. We have a ring that might be associated with Edward de Vere, based largely on where it was found and a suggested resemblance in the intaglio. De Vere, in turn, might, according to the Oxfordian theory, have written the works attributed to William Shakespeare.

That is overdoing it, I feel, as there is no solid evidence for the first claim to begin with.

What can we actually say about this ring?

None of this makes the ring itself any less fascinating. It is a rare and beautiful piece of Elizabethan jewellery, found in Essex and recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme. But there is a difference between what we know and what we would like to know. A find spot in the wider vicinity of Hedingham Castle does not by itself connect the ring to Edward de Vere, and a perceived resemblance in an intaglio is not the same as an identified portrait. Taking the next step, from Edward de Vere to Shakespeare, moves us further still from the evidence.

And that is exactly what interests me here: not whether someone has technically claimed that Edward de Vere owned this ring, because they have not, but how easy it is to arrive at a compelling association that the available evidence cannot actually confirm.

And that is why provenance matters so much. Objects acquire stories remarkably easily, especially when a famous name can be found to hitch the tale onto. And if it is repeated often enough, a possibility quickly turns into an attribution, and an attribution then becomes apparent fact. Key takeaway from this piece of jewellery: read a description carefully and separate established fact from (admittedly!) intriguing possibility.

Personally, I think this ring is interesting enough without the hype!

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References

PAS record: Flynn, S. (2018) ESS-A69E73: Post Medieval finger-ring. Web page available at https://finds.org.uk/pas/recorded-find/ESS-A69E73 under a CC-BY licence [Accessed: 04 Sep 2026 09:52:38]

Berganza listing: https://www.berganza.com/knowledge/extraordinary-jewellery/pieces-of-interest/important-piece-of-elizabethan-history [Accessed September 4th, 2026]

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The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

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Jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry: what does it actually show?

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Ancient jewellery, European jewellery

what does it actually show?

Jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry

Published Sept 3, 2026

You probably heard one way or another, but in 2026, the Bayeux Tapestry is on loan to England from France. It’s on display in the British Museum while in its home of Bayeux, France, a new museum is being built. This historic loan prompted me to have a look at the tapestry again – in search of jewellery, of course! Especially since there is not all that much adornment featured.

What is the Bayeux Tapestry?

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most famous surviving works from medieval Europe. Created in the late 11th century, it shows the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, ending with the Battle of Hastings.

It is not actually a tapestry, though: the scenes are embroidered in coloured wool onto a linen fabric of nearly 69 meters in length and approximately 70 centimetres in height. This horizontal banner, which is more what it was, was made to measure for the nave of Bayeux Cathedral. So, when you walked in, you’d see the entire story unfold, and then you could walk past it to see the details. Those include details that can only be seen from a close distance, such as texture in clothing, details of horse gear, the detailing around the rim of a drinking horn, and much more.

Close viewing was the idea, and that brings me to the question of the jewellery: what jewellery was featured on the Bayeux Tapestry?

What jewellery is shown on the Bayeux Tapestry?

There is surprisingly little jewellery featured on the Bayeux Tapestry; in fact, there is only one type of jewel that features with any prominence and that is the disc brooch. This is seen worn by men to close their mantle: sometimes on the shoulder, and sometimes on the upper chest. The image above of Harold Godwinson shows a disc brooch worn on the shoulder.

In some instances, the brooch closing a mantle seems to be more square than disc-shaped, such as in the image of King Edward the Confessor shown above.

I included an example of how we may imagine such a brooch to look like above. Popular in the 11th century were enameled brooches and brooches with filigree and precious stones.

Bayeux Tapestry jewellery and the archaeological record

There was of course more jewellery in existence during the 11^th century than shown on the Bayeux Tapestry. Finger rings, for example, were among the pieces of jewellery most often worn. When Edward’s tomb was opened in 1102, Osbert of Clare described the king as wearing a crown and finger ring [1]. But such a ring was never depicted on the artwork in Bayeux, while he is shown wearing a crown.

Likewise, other embellishments such as decorated straps, ornate belts, pins etc are missing from the Bayeux Tapestry as well, while we know these existed.

Why is there so little jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry?

The Bayeux Tapestry shows much less jewellery than we know existed. Why is that?

Firstly, the artwork shows a series of mainly military events. Here, identity and status are portrayed through more martial elements such as helmets, shields, swords, and horse gear. The disc brooches fit in with that aesthetic: they close the cloaks and mantles of high-ranking persons. In fact, brooches were an important part of personal identity, a notion that only grew stronger after the Norman conquests. [2]

Secondly, status is not just expressed through jewellery, but significantly also in textiles. Their colours, trimmings and textures would have sent messages to viewers on the status of the persons depicted. Edward’s garment for example, as depicted in the first scene of the artwork, has distinctive ornamental trimming, alongside richly represented cushions and hangings.

The Bayeux Tapestry is not a photographic record of reality, but includes jewellery when this serves the narrative. We see it feature mainly where authority is visualized, such as in the representation of Edward, Harold and William.

Jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry: what it tells us about its time

So, if you do have the opportunity to see the Bayeux Tapestry and hope to find complete picture of 11th-century jewellery, you will come away disappointed. But that absence is interesting in itself. Jewellery appears selectively, particularly where it helps communicate status and authority, while other forms of adornment that we know from archaeological and written sources are left out.

That makes the Bayeux Tapestry useful in a different way. Rather than showing us everything people actually wore, it shows us which details made sense to the makers, and, even more, to the viewers of this extraordinary embroidered narrative. And sometimes, what an artwork leaves out can be just as revealing as what it includes!

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References

See this blog https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/texts-films-customs-and-event/non-fictional-works/king-edward-the-confessor-s-embroidered-mantle

And for a complete overview of the tapestry: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/everything-you-need-know-about-bayeux-tapestry

[1] Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Maren Clegg Hyer, eds., Refashioning Medieval and Early Modern Dress: A Tribute to Robin Netherton. (Medieval and Renaissance Clothing and Textiles.) Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2019

[2] Weetch, R. Tradition and innovation: Lead-alloy brooches and urban identities in the 11th century. In D. M. Hadley & C. Dyer (Eds.), The Archaeology of the 11th Century: Continuities and Transformations (pp. 263–282). Routledge, 2017

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When a €30 diamond crashes the system: rethinking jewellery’s worth

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | European jewellery, Opinion

Rethinking jewellery’s worth

When a €30 diamond crashes the system

Updated October 4, 2025

Upheaval in the jewellery world! Last week, Dutch low-budget chain Zeeman released a lab-grown diamond pendant for just under 30 euros. Their claim, in a spin on De Beers’ ‘diamonds are forever’: diamonds are for everyone. This affordable, lab-grown diamond caused quite the stir: jewellery experts hastened to explain the difference between lab-grown and natural diamonds, lawsuits were filed, the Zeeman website crashed because of the number of people trying to get one of these. For me, as a jewellery historian, this is fascinating because of the underlying question: what is the value of jewellery, and who gets to decide it?

The Zeeman diamond pendant controversy

So, what is all the fuss about?

Zeeman is a Dutch, low-budget chain of stores, usually associated with cheap products and low incomes. Just to be clear: no shade to Zeeman, I used to work there as a teen to pay for my school books, and learned quite a lot there, too. It’s not, however, a store that people visit for leisurely shopping. And now, this of all stores releases an affordable diamond pendant… wait, what?

Here’s what they offered: a silver pendant set with a small, round brilliant cut diamond of about 0.10 carats, VS2 clarity, and D–F colour. The diamond is lab-grown, and the pendant was priced at €29.99. The ad was brilliant, too: starting out with sepia-hued casino luxury vibes, it then switched to behind the scenes where everyday people were seen enjoying diamonds. See it here (Dutch spoken, but the imagery says it all)

When the diamond pendant finally went online, thousands of people rushed to buy one. The website crashed under demand, and stock sold out within the hour. A budget retailer, usually associated with socks and cleaning cloths, suddenly had a runaway success with diamond jewellery – that’s in the same league as Meghan Markle’s As Ever sellouts (also: the price of two tins of As Ever flower sprinkles equals one diamond pendant – just so you get an idea).

The controversy, of course, didn’t lag far behind. A Dutch wholesaler, Gisser Jewels, filed a lawsuit against Zeeman, arguing that their advertising was misleading. Zeeman had compared its €29.99 pendant to ‘similar’ pieces sold for hundreds of euros, which competitors said was an unfair comparison. The case was settled and a rectification of the comparison statement issued.

But still, a pendant that cost less than dinner for two found itself at the heart of a very public debate on what jewellery is worth.

Are lab-grown diamonds less ‘real’ than natural diamonds?

One of the first questions raised was, of course, whether these diamonds are ‘real’. The answer is: yes, they are. Lab-grown diamonds are chemically and physically identical to those mined from the earth. They score the same on the Mohs hardness scale, have the same brilliance, and can even be graded in exactly the same way by gemmological institutes. They sparkle just as amazing in candlelight. The only difference is origin.

That difference does carry social and environmental weight. Mining has long been associated with ecological disruption and, in some regions, with labour exploitation and conflict financing. The term ‘blood diamonds’ says it all, wouldn’t you agree?

Lab-grown diamonds sidestep those issues, although they, too, come with their own footprint: the process of creating them costs insane amounts of energy. Still, many see them as a more transparent alternative, and certainly as a more affordable one.

What **makes jewellery really valuable?** Rethinking jewellery worth

This is where it gets interesting. Because, despite the rectification issued, much of jewellery marketing (actually, any marketing, when you think of it…) does rest on scarcity and exclusivity. Books like Aja Raden’s Stoned and documentaries like Nothing Lasts Forever peel back that history of how desire is created and maintained through careful control of supply and clever advertising. According to these sources, De Beers famously built the 20th-century diamond market on that very idea: diamonds were not inherently rare, but they were presented as such.

We tend to fall back on that way of looking at jewellery: by the worth of its materials alone. But as I wrote earlier, this is a very limited way of thinking about adornment. Jewellery is not just about price tags. It can be made of glass, shell, copper or plastic and still be ‘real’ because its value lies in meaning: in how it is worn, who gave it, what story it carries.

See that earlier blog here: what is real jewellery?

Zeeman’s diamond challenges two long-held assumptions: that diamonds are scarce, and that they must therefore be costly. If both of those are shaken, then what really gives jewellery its worth…?

When jewellery loses (or gains) value: a historical perspective

This isn’t the first time jewellery has faced a shift in how value is perceived. In the 19th century, for instance, jet and gutta-percha were introduced as substitutes for more expensive materials like onyx or tortoiseshell. They were mass-produced and affordable, and at the time, some dismissed them as cheap imitations. But today, Victorian mourning jewellery in jet is prized for its craftsmanship and historical significance – literally prized, as real jet is quite expensive.

Glass, too, has long been used in place of gemstones – sometimes to deceive, often simply to make beauty available to more people. We don’t consider Roman glass intaglios less valuable because they’re not carved in amethyst or garnet; instead, we treasure them for their artistry and survival – and because they tell us a lot about the society that produced them.

That also works the other way around; materials that were once expensive, but now so common we can’t even imagine them as anything else.

Changing jewellery value: aluminium

Take aluminium, for example. In the mid-19th century, this was considered a precious metal. I know, right…? Let that sink in for a moment.

Aluminium was difficult to extract and more valuable than gold. Gold earrings were set with tiny blobs of aluminium – a fashion-forward lady would be showing off the latest of the latest. The pair shown above (click to enlarge the image) must have been worth a small fortune. Napoleon III famously had a set of aluminium cutlery reserved for honoured guests, while less important ones dined with silver. Imagine doing that today!

It was only after mass production was made possible after 1886, that aluminium became a common industrial metal. Those earrings shown above were just about 25 years old at that time, and suffered the same fate as your previous iPhone: expensive on purchase, totally worthless a few years later. Today, they’re expensive again – not because of their material value, but because of their historical value.

Changing jewellery value: amethyst

And did you know amethyst long ranked alongside diamonds as a major gemstone? It was associated with royalty and the Church – until large deposits were discovered in Brazil, amethysts became readily available, and its status plummeted. You can now buy amethysts anywhere, from spiritual shops to your corner jwellery store.

Changing jewellery value: a historical constant

So, in other words, what we see now with lab-grown diamonds is not entirely new. Materials once considered second-rate can, over time, take on new layers of value as they become part of cultural history. And materials once rare and exotic lost their financial value after mass production made them accessible to a larger audience.

I’ve shown you just two examples above, but this ebbing and flowing of material value is a constant throughout history. Fancy types of flint were imported from faraway lands in prehistoric times, iron was a breathtakingly new material for Tutankhamun, glass knocked everyone’s socks off when it was first invented, pearls were super expensive and rare until Mr. Mikimoto invented culturing….the list goes on. Why should the value of diamonds be any different?

The diamond for everyone: what the Zeeman pendant reveals

The run on Zeeman’s webshop shows there is real demand for accessible diamonds. For many, the chance to gift or own a diamond was out of reach until now. And if jewellery is about meaning, about marking moments and relationships, then a €29.99 pendant can absolutely become an heirloom in its own right.

That is what fascinates me most: Zeeman has forced us to look straight at the assumptions of the jewellery trade. Scarcity, prestige, value – they are not fixed truths, but shifting ideas shaped by people, culture and time.

I must admit that as a historian, I quite enjoy how Zeeman stirs things up, holding a mirror up to the jewellery world – and yes, if a second batch is released, I’ll probably be queuing online with everyone else!

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References

See the diamond pendant itself here.

More on the lawsuit is here.

See more on the remarkable rise and fall of aluminium here.

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The Fascination of Jewellery

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | European jewellery, Museums & Exhibitions

7,000 years of jewellery art

The Fascination of Jewellery

Published January 1, 2025

An exhibition of 7,000 years of jewellery: of course, I had to go and see that! The Cologne Museum of Applied Arts (MAKK) devoted an exhibition based on its own formidable collection of jewellery. It turned out to be a beautiful, albeit very classic, jewellery exhibition.

The MAKK jewellery collection

The MAKK holds around 1,700 pieces of jewellery in its collection. As this is a design museum (and so not specifically a jewellery or historic museum), and the collection has been built by both acquisition and generous gifts, the collection reflects a traditional European viewpoint of jewellery: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 19^th century form its focal points. [1]

The geographical focus of all this is profoundly European [2]: among the antiquities, there are of course pieces from the ancient civilizations in North Africa and Southwest Asia – these were avidly collected in Europe.

The ‘cross-cultural content’ of the exhibition, as mentioned on the exhibition website, therefore is to be seen as more cross-cultural within Europe, rather than cross-cultural as in: including non-Western cultures.

7,000 years of jewellery art in the MAKK

The exhibition itself is organised thematically as well as chronologically. This works very well: each showcase is devoted to a theme, which itself is then built up chronologically. The texts with each theme are very accessible and enlighting.

I loved that the exhibition started out with amulets as one of the first themes – one of my favourite capacities of jewellery! See a few of these in the gallery above: click to enlarge the images. Other themes include rings, mourning jewellery, inspiration from flora and fauna, as well as more stylistic developments such as the emergence of archaeologically inspired jewellery, Art Nouveau and mass-produced jewellery. A series of modern designs finally showcases contemporary takes on themes such as identity, the relation to the human body and intricate constructions.

The Fascination of Jewellery: the dreamed potential

I very much enjoyed seeing all of these stunning jewellery items and wandering through themes and time-periods. What I missed however, was an opportunity to highlight the meaning of jewellery beyond the art-historian.

For the Middle Ages for example, the art of enamelling in southern Europe and North Africa forms a technical connection between worlds that could have enhanced the exhibition, and the stylistic impact of the steppe peoples from Central Asia on early medieval jewellery is a beautiful illustration of how worlds are connected rather than separated.

And if ever there was a category of jewellery that underscores identity, it would be regional dress and adornment. The regional jewellery of the German-speaking world alone is so rich and varied, that attention to this jewellery, of more common people, could have added another layer of significance to the exhibition.

Of course, I understand that the collection of the MAKK formed the backbone of this exhibition, and also that this is one of the most respected collections of European jewellery – the jewellery shown in the exhibition is stunning and a privilege to study, no argument there. But with even a few loans from other collections, I think this particular exhibition could have transcended to an even more meaningful goal: building bridges in an increasingly fragmenting society – through jewellery. Illustrating how techniques, forms and designs form part of a shared cultural background of 7,000 years is, or could have been, an incredibly powerful message.

The Fascination of Jewellery: the catalogue

Despite my personal daydream of what a jewellery exhibition could offer, the objects on display are absolutely fabulous. Every single piece of jewellery is breathtaking!And so, I always hope for a catalogue with a jewellery exhibition.

Now one of the great things about exhibitions in German museums happens to be the catalogues, and the book that comes with this exhibition is no exception. It’s a huge, beautiful volume of more than 350 pages, entirely bilingual in German and English, and presents beautiful, crisp photos of the exhibited jewellery along with well-researched and insightful texts. It offers background on the collection strategy, has an introductory chapter on the collection itself by none other than Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, and gives ample explanations with every piece of jewellery featured.

The Fascination of Jewellery: 7,000 years of jewellery art

You will love this exhibition for the quality of its jewellery, offered to a wide public through easily digestible texts and themes. Wandering across the beautifully lit and designed showcases, you will get a great introduction into European jewellery throughout the ages. The catalogue that goes with the exhibition is a must if you work with European jewellery in any capacity! And even though I would have let this spectacular jewellery collection be the inspiration for a different type of exhibition myself, I had a great time – and I’m convinced you will, too.

The Fascination of Jewellery. 7,000 years of jewellery at the MAKK.

I visited the exhibition on my own initiative on Dec 28th, 2024, and purchased the catalogue myself.

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The Fascination of Jewellery: references

[1] Focal points as mentioned on the website of the museum, accessed January 1^st, 2025.

[2] As explained in the catalogue, p. 14/15.

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Not Lost But Gone Before

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | European jewellery, General jewellery topics

Jewellery conference

Not Lost But Gone Before

Published on October 26, 2024

When you have been following this blog for a while, you know that jewellery to me is a historic source. It shares a lot about both the people that made and wore these items as well as the world they lived in. No jewellery is more personal in that respect than mourning jewellery. Even though this is a very Western thing, I have been fascinated by it for quite some time, and so I jumped at the chance to co-organise Not Lost But Gone Before, an entire afternoon of talks about this particular topic!

Not Lost But Gone Before: the title

Not Lost But Gone Before was born out of enthusiasm of three people. Kim van Zweeden is a jewellery researcher and podcast host with a wide interest in all things jewellery. Sophie van Gulik is a jewellery specialist and researcher, and the third person, you guessed it, is me.

We share an appreciation of the beauty and history in mourning jewellery, and so we almost organically came up with the idea to organise a symposium when we learned the one and only Sarah Nehama was coming to The Netherlands! Sarah is a specialist on mourning jewellery and author of the book In Death Lamented: see more about that here.

We named the symposium after one of the mottos that is often found on mourning jewellery: Not Lost But Gone Before is a beautiful line, instilling hope in those left behind that they may be reunited with their loved ones at some unknown point in the future.

Mourning jewellery

Mourning jewellery is incredibly personal and sentimental. From the 17^th century onwards, jewellery commemorating departed loved ones became fashionable, and this reached an absolute peak in the 19^th century. Queen Victoria donned mourning dress after the death of her husband Albert, and as such singlehandedly created a boom in the market for all sorts of mourning jewellery.

Much of that jewellery has survived, and is avidly collected. Our symposium sold out, and we were thrilled to have a room filled with an audience eager to learn more and share!

Sarah presented an overview of mourning jewellery, starting with the earliest memento mori-jewellery and finishing in the 20^th century. She explained how styles developed and how new techniques found their way into mourning jewellery, such as daguerreotypes and photography.

Sophie shared the memory of her ancestor, Anna Paulowna (Pauline) van Gulik. This was a powerful story on how personal jewellery can be: after the early death of Pauline, her family went into mourning and held on to every single piece of material culture surrounding her death and funeral. Photos, jewellery, mourning dress and other mementos are still kept in the family until today, and illustrate how hard letting go can be.

Kim brought us a kaleidoscopic overview of mourning customs in her home province, Zeeland. We learned about the stages of mourning expressed through jewellery and dress, the (sometimes) very local customs and choices, and brought us up to speed with traditions from Zeeland.

And finally, I presented a talk on a unique mourning ring from the Netherlands, a piece that ties in closely with national history and the mythmaking that surrounds historical figures.

Mourning jewellery: exhibition

Of course, no symposium on jewellery is complete without an exhibition! We curated a small, but beautiful exhibition on mourning jewellery from The Netherlands and the UK. In it, we addressed materials, such as hairwork and jet. Hairwork is not necessarily exclusively for mourning, but how to tell the difference? And while mourning jewellery is often associated with jet, in The Netherlands this does not exist: mourning jewellery is made of black glass. Mourning necklaces from various in The Netherlands, brooches and rings from both The Netherlands and the UK as well as a beautiful selection of mourning dress in Sophie’s family allowed the guests to enjoy an overview of the wide field of mourning jewellery.

Not Lost But Gone Before: a recurring event

The symposium on mourning jewellery was well received: the room was sold out and we had guests coming from considerable distances to join in. The mingling and discussions afterwards, as well as the experiences shared around the exhibition, made it abundantly clear that there is still so much to explore and share! Not Lost But Gone Before will return in 2025: if you’d like to be kept informed, please drop me a line and we will add you to our mailing list for this event!

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Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

The Art of the Ring: book review of the Griffin Collection

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | European jewellery, Reviews

Rings from the Griffin Collection

The Art of the Ring: book review

Published on July 31, 2024

Who does not love rings? I think it may be fair to say people have always been obsessed with them, and so they have been both produced ánd collected in large numbers. The Art of the Ring by Diana Scarisbrick presents highlights from one such collection, the privately held Griffin Collection, and offers both a visual and scholarly journey into ring history. In this review, I’ll walk you through its strengths, highlights, and how it compares with other landmark publications on rings.

Bedouin Silver | The Art of the Ring book

The Griffin Collection: earlier publications

The Art of the Ring is the third volume in a series devoted to rings from the Griffin Collection. The collection is huge, and the two previous books have zoomed in on one particular category of rings. Take this Ring explored medieval and renaissance rings, and I like my choyce presents the history of posy rings. The Art of the Ring takes another approach: here, the aim is to present a cross-section through the collection. In that way, you could think of this as the prequel to the other volumes: it introduces the collection.

Bedouin Silver | Griffin Collection Books

Highlights of the Griffin Collection of rings

Introducing such a vast collection is no easy thing to do! The book presents 100 rings, some of which have been featured in other publications, and some are published here for the first time. This selection is divided into 8 chapters, each focusing on a certain type of ring. There are signet rings, devotional rings, Memento Mori and memorial rings, Love, Marriage and Friendship rings, rings related to daily life, rings set with coloured stones, diamond rings and rings with royal and noble associations. Each chapter sets out with an introduction on the central theme.

Comparing The Art of the Ring with other publications

These sections largely coincide with those of another publication by Diana Scarisbrick, Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty (2007). This book presents the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, expanded with rings from museum and private collections to form a comprehensive overview of rings. That makes it very easy to read both books in tandem, compare both collections and as such expand your insight in the subject.

Photography and presentation in The Art of the Ring

Each ring in The Art of the Ring has its own ‘passport’: several photos, a description, and an explanation of what we see and how this particular ring fits into a wider context. And for each ring, you will also find an overview of its provenance (how did it end up in this collection?), where it has been exhibited, and where it has been published.

I did wish some of the photos would be larger. As there is a lot of information included per ring, the space allocated to photos of the ring itself sometimes just is not that much. For example, ring no. 20 is an Italian ring with a sardonyx cameo showing the Shroud of Turin: a magnification here would have been helpful, as the image itself is crisp, but on the small side. That is not to say all of them are small! Throughout the book, page-sized details allow the reader to take in splendid details. But where Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty presents large photos overall, the illustrations in The Art of the Ring are notably smaller.

European focus and perspectives in ring collecting

The Art of the Ring focuses on European rings, with Byzantine rings as the most ‘eastern’ representatives. The other two publications dedicated to the Griffin Collection also are firmly focused on the West – at least, that we know of: perhaps this private collection holds more than has been published yet!

That perspective on European/Western rings appears in other books and other collections, too: there are few collections that include the Islamic world as well. Such as the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, which holds a large number of Islamic rings, and which have been published in Islamic Rings & Gems. The Zucker Collection.

Why is that perspective important? One example from The Art of the Ring may illustrate this point.

The Italian sapphire ring with Arabic inscription

That is the super stunning Italian inscribed gold ring with a sapphire carrying an Arabic inscription. It is featured in both The Art of the Ring and in Cycles of Life, also drawing from the Zucker collection – jewellery travels, and this ring has moved from one collector to another. See an image of this beautiful ring here.

In Cycles of Life, the discussion of this particular ring is very complete, with a presentation of two parallels. The same ring is also briefly featured in Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty, and now in The Art of the Ring as well – with a most breathtaking photo. In all three books, the sapphire is treated as ‘the odd one out’, a rare stone to be included in an Italian ring. But when browsing through the two volumes of Ruby, Sapphire & Spinel: An Archaeological, Textual and Cultural Study (2016), where sapphires are discussed in their cultural context throughout time, we learn much more about the importance and meaning of sapphire as well as inscribed Islamic gems. Such a wider scope would make this collection even more fascinating.

The Art of the Ring in context of other ring books

As I said above, this volume is dedicated to the Griffin Collection. As with all collections, the choices of the collector determine what the scope of the collection is, and so I enjoyed comparing The Art of the Ring with a few other collections that live on my bookshelves. This is, incidentally, why you would want to own not just one book on rings: it’s when they all get together that you’ll start learning!

By the same author, there is the book I already mentioned, Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty (2007), with the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection as its core. This collection starts earlier, timewise: where the Griffin Collection seems to start out with Greek and Roman rings, the Zucker Collection also holds Egyptian rings (that’s another 3,000 years of rings).

That same collection is also published in Cycles of Life which uses a different approach in linking rings to stages in our lives: birth, marriage, death, eternity, and everyday life. This book adds more descriptive detail to its 41 rings, and discusses parallels for each piece as well, something that The Art of the Ring does not.

And where The Art of the Ring is organised thematically, the V&A publication on its ring collection Rings is built chronologically. Both books are still quite comparable, with many examples from the same timeframes featuring in both books.

Although this brief comparison is clearly far from exhaustive, it hopefully gives you some idea of the nature of The Art of the Ring in relation to other books on European ring collections.

Conclusion: why The Art of the Ring is a beautiful book

Whether you are working as a curator, collector, or simply adore rings, The Art of the Ring is a book you will want to own.

It is expertly written and presents an engaging introduction in the beautiful ring collection of the Griffin Collection. It complements the previous two volumes wonderfully, and is also a great companion volume to Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty. But even without its sibling books, The Art of the Ring is a volume that very well holds its own – it’s a wonderful overview of rings.

The only drawback is the size of some photos, notably for the rings that have not been published before, but I really enjoyed this book as a valuable introduction into a collection of which I hope many more volumes will be published!

More about The Art of the Ring

The Art of the Ring. Highlights from The Griffin Collection.

By Diana Scarisbrick (2024). 240 pages, full-colour, in English. Published by AD ILISSVM/Paul Holberton Publishing.

I received the book as review copy.

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Bibliography

Church, R. 2017. Rings. Thames & Hudson/V&A

Content, D.J. 2016. Ruby, Sapphire & Spinel: An Archaeological, Textual and Cultural Study, Brepols

Content, D.J. (ed) 1987. Islamic Rings & Gems. The Zucker Collection. Philip Wilson Publishers

Hindman, S. 2014. Cycles of Life. Rings from the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection. Les Enluminures

Hindman, S. 2015. Take this Ring. Medieval and Renaissance Rings from the Griffin Collection. Les Enluminures

Scarisbrick, D. 2007. Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty. Thames & Hudson

Scarisbrick, D. 2021. I like my Choyce. Posy Rings from the Griffin Collection. AD ILISSVM/Paul Holberton Publishing

Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

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