1780s Georgian Hairwork Lamb Navette Ring

A c. 1780s English Georgian sentimental devotional ring, the large navette shaped ring face featuring an intricate hairwork sepia of a lamb resting beneath an acacia bush, with a surrounding halo of amethysts and pearls, the 15k gold setting and shank decorated with bright-cut engraving highly representative of the 1780s. The lamb depicted is devotional in nature, meant to invoke the liturgy Agnus Dei (latin for ‘the Lamb of God’), which is sung or recited as a form of contemplative prayer. The biblical source for this liturgy is John 1:29: Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobi (“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world”). Since the middle ages, the Lamb of God has been depicted with a halo, heart-wound, and cross. This representation had however shifted from iconography towards naturalism by the 18th century, to be associated with women, children, and pastoralism. Visual and decorative arts from this era depict lambs in pastoral landscapes, and in portraits with women or children. Lambs represented the sacrificial innocence of Christ; St. Augustine for instance wrote in 375, “Why a lamb in his resurrection? Because his innocence is everlasting.” For this reason, images of a child St. John have been traditionally accompanied with a lamb. By extension, the lamb came to symbolize the innocence of all children, women, and pastoral virtue during the 18th century. In jewelry, the lamb symbol was both popular for both mourning rings commemorating the passing of a child (or unmarried woman), as well as sentimental or devotional celebration of innocence. The acadia bush seen on the present ring is yet another devotional mnemonic, being a tree species frequently mentioned in the bible, and may have represented the Burning Bush. The pearls represent innocence and the purple amethysts penitence. For a Georgian pendant with a pearl miniature of lambs resting beneath a tree, see British Museum 1978,1002.810.
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