Rings

The symbolic use of signet-rings is mentioned in many pa ages of the Holy Scriptures, especially as a transfer of authority; as Pharaoh to Joseph (Gen. xli. 42), Ahasuerus to Haman, . A large collection of Egyptian signet-rings is in the British Museum, many being much too large to be worn on the hand. Egyptian rings were of ivory, porcelain, or stone, but generally of gold. The Etruscans and Sabines wore rings at the foundation of Rome, 753 B.C., those of the former being remarkable for beauty and intrinsic value. The Lacedæmonians wore iron rings. The Romans also under the Republic were proud of wearing an iron ring; under the Empire the privilege of wearing a ring raised the wearer to the equestrian order. Greek and Roman rings were, generally speaking, ma ive and simple, and of obvious value in metal and stone, until in the degenerate times of the Empire luxury spread, and the lower cla es began to disfigure themselves with cheap jewellery. Solid rings were carved out of rock-crystal in Christian times; and others were made of stone, chiefly of calcedony. Rings of amber, gla , earthenware, and other materials were exhumed at Pompeii. The Britons and Saxons had beautiful jewellery. The former wore the ring on the middle finger; the Anglo-Saxons on the third finger of the right hand, which was thence poetically called the “golden finger.” A beautiful specimen of enamelled art is the gold ring of Ethelwulf, king of We ex (the father of Alfred the Great), now in the medal room of the British Museum. Among the niello rings of the Saxon period is one in the British Museum inscribed “Ahlreds owns me, Eanred engraved me.” Plain wire rings, or plain bands of metal merely twisted round the finger, are common objects in Saxon tombs; but the most beautiful specimens of this, as of other branches of the goldsmith’s art in antiquity, are from Ireland. In Scand in a via the earliest forms are spiral, and of simple workmanship. Rings were a part of the official jewellery of kings, bishops, and cardinals; and the fisherman’s ring, with a representation of St. Peter in a boat fishing, was the papal ring of investiture. A copious literature on this special subject deals with the superstitions, ceremonies, customs, and anecdotes connected with finger-rings, as well as with their exemplification of the history of the development or decadence of art. A collector divides his rings into Antique, Mediæval, and Modern; the former period ending A. D. 800, and cla ified by nationalities. The later collections are cla ified as Official: ecclesiastical, civil, and military; or Personal, viz. signet-rings, love and marriage, mourning, .; historical, religious (i. e. devotional, .), magic, and simply ornamental. (The substance of the above is drawn from Finger-ring Lore, ., by W. Jones, Chatto, 1877; and Antique Gems, by the Rev. C. W. King. For the significance of rings in connexion with the history of Christianity, see Smith and Cheetham, Dict. of Christ. Ant. s. v.)