Ring

A notable source of ancient coins and historical jewellery appearing on the market in 2020 has been the soil. It is the success of the Portable Antiquities Scheme that finders of ‘treasure’ are now encouraged to declare discoveries and share the proceeds of sales with the landowner.

This curious object is the forerunner of a million Christmas cracker prizes. Made in gold and silver, c.1830, the ‘ring’ chased with flowers includes a tiny pin hole which allows a jet of water to be squirted into the face of an unsuspecting admirer via a syringe-like plunger that can be concealed in the palm.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

This George III mourning ring is engraved 'W’m Tipping, aged 17, died 23 Aug, 1792'. He drowned while bathing in the sea at Blackpool.

Interest in glyphic art, that reached its collecting apogee during Grand Tour collecting, is resurgent once more.

Fifteen upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.

A recent Stroud Auctions sale featured a private collection of more than 120 pieces of Georgian and Victorian jewellery. Most were rings, among them many examples of mourning jewellery in a wide range of forms and materials.

This Grand Tour-era ring sold at Great Western Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Glasgow features an unusual banded carnelian intaglio carved with a putti holding the leg of a large grasshopper.

An early 16th century ring found by a metal detectorist in East Yorkshire has sold at auction for £36,000.

Chiswick Auctions will offer a single-owner collection of memorabilia relating to the second generation English Romantic poet, George Gordon Byron (1788-1824).

Glyphic art was one of the success stories of 2019. The return to collecting fashion of this once dusty academic field is bringing more hardstone gems to the market.

An intaglio ring became the second of the ‘lost’ Marlborough jewels to surface at auction in 2019 when it sold for £36,000 (plus 22.5% premium) in Cambridge.

A Roman bronze ring offered for sale by Pax Romana (15% buyer’s premium) in London on November 24 appears to shed light on a little known aspect of the imperial army: the contribution of Jewish soldiers.

It was not catalogued as such, but this silver ring modelled as a standing lion with a gold-coloured mane is designed by Moshe Oved (1885-1958), the owner of celebrated Bloomsbury antique shop Cameo Corner where jewellery expert John Benjamin first learnt his trade.

This early medieval gold ring dates to the time of the Crusades – its decoration of a five-fold ‘Jerusalem’ cross suggesting a link with the Knights Templar.

Out of favour for a generation, grand tour and ancient intaglios and cameos are enjoying a return to form.

The November 18 sale titled California Jewelry held by Doyle New York on the West Coast includes a group of French Art Nouveau pieces described as ‘Property from an Important Jewel Collector’. Several display the plique-à-jour (‘letting in daylight’) enamelling technique revived in the late 19th century.