18th c White Enamel Posy Ring with Heart Symbol

A wonderfully sentimental early-mid 18th century posy ring, the outer hoop enameled in white and inlay-decorated with scrollwork hawthorn blossoms, the interior inscribed: “Mon bel amour je te donne mon cœur ♡” (French, “my beautiful love I give you my heart ♡”). Posy rings with decorated outer hoops are more unusual than plain counterparts; of these, examples enameled in white are especially rare. Among the British Museum’s large collection of 693 posy rings, only around five are enameled in white (accession numbers AF.1530, 2002,0501.1, 1961,1202.83, 1961,1202.314, AF.1264), and only two rings within this group have most of its enamel preserved. Several posy rings in the British Museum also bear a ♡ heart symbol (accession numbers 1961,1202.236; 1961,1202.220; 1961,1202.44; 1961,1202.217). This ♡ functioned either as a rebus for the word “heart”, or as a sentimental symbol to bookend the beginnings or ends of posies. An italic script posy of similar sentiment— “mon cœur est avec vous” (my heart is with you) — is cited in Joan Evan’s “English Posies and Posy Rings” (London, 1931). The specific spelling of the present posy matches with the phrases “je te donne mon cœur”, “mon amour” and “bel” in a 1649 Paris edition of “Saint Eustache Martyr” by Balthasar Baro.
From the late Medieval era to the 18th century, posy rings were exchanged for betrothals and marriages, and as tokens of sentiment for friends and lovers. The short phrases inscribed to the inner surface—posies—are simple records of feeling, to be bonded intimately against the flesh. White enamel was the color of innocence and sentiment, used for mourning only when the deceased was a child or unmarried, and largely the color associated with 17th-18th c sentimental jewels. The present ring’s stylistic roots can be traced to the ‘schweifwerk’ enameled bands of the early 17th century; for an example in white enamel, see cat. 719 in the Koch Collection. The hawthorne blossoms found throughout the present ring was a popular motif between 1680-1750, meant to invoke Christ’s crown of thorns.
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