c. 1580-1620 Late Renaissance Ruby Ring

A marvelous late Renaissance era gold ring, set with a table-cut natural ruby (GIA certified Burmese no heat) in a rub-over boxed bezel, the flaring shoulders embellished with blossoms, and inlaid throughout with polychrome enamels. Rings of this design type were made throughout Europe during the last decades of the Renaissance, c. 1580-1620, and can be identified by the angular rigidity of the ring head, which stands in contrast to the curved petal-like forms of the mid-Renaissance. The present ring is closely related to two examples in major museums: a late 16th c ring in the Victoria & Albert Museum (no. 731-1902) and another, dated 1580-1620, in the Koch Collection / Swiss National Museum (cat. 689). Its shoulder design is also nearly identical to that of a late 16th c ring sold by Sotheby’s (lot 11 sale L19231). Additionally, the present ring’s profile aligns favorably with three late 16th – early 17th c rings in the Koch collection (cat. 689, 691, 695). Although high Renaissance jewels were copied throughout the late 19th century, major museums have set reliable testing standards to distinguish Renaissance enamels from 19th century ones, through Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) or X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. According to papers published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rijksmuseum, opaque enamels were opacified with tin-oxide during the Renaissance, and lead-arsenate during the 19th century. White enamel dating to the 19th century is generally composed of 20-50% lead-oxide and 3-8% arsenic-oxide. By contrast, Renaissance white enamel is high in silicon and tin oxides, with lead composition below 20% and no detectable arsenic. The white enamel on the present ring was analyzed by an A2LA-accredited lab via EDS, and found to be 44.53% tin oxide, 49.08% silicon oxide, 4.74% lead oxide, and 1.65% sodium oxide. No arsenic was detected. The results thus confirm a Renaissance date.
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