c. 1680-1723 Stuart Crystal Ring

A late 17th – early 18th c Stuart crystal ring, featuring a knotted cypher set beneath foiled quartz crystal, within a scrolled and enamel inlaid setting of 18k gold, the ring head posterior inscribed “EL 1723”. Rings of this type are seldomly date inscribed. The present example is unusual not only for its inscription, but also for its rich provenance. The ring’s existence was recorded in the pocketbook of William Phillips (1802 – 1877) of Woodbury on 15 July 1855, at the deathbed of his wife, Lydia Phillips (née Ebbles, 1805 – 1855). Prior to her death at “25 minutes after 5 o’clock in the morning, Sunday”, Lydia’s last requests included a wish for her daughter Jane Mary to inherit “the gould ring marked EL date 1723”. Lydia’s mother Mary Hall (1771 – 1831) was a daughter of Richard Hall and Elizabeth Lee; the present ring is from Lydia’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Lee, whose family included an ancestor (possibly Lydia’s great grandmother) also named Elizabeth Lee, who was remembered to have died in 1738, and whose initials represent the EL inscribed on the present ring. The 1723 year inscription likely commemorates a wedding, as Stuart crystal rings are known to have been made for a variety of occasions (e.g. funerals, weddings, political events, and everyday sentimental use). Following Lydia’s death in 1855, her daughter Jane Mary Phillips (1839 – after 1901) gave the ring to her own daughter, Henrietta Annie Mills (1874 – 1930). From Henrietta, the ring went to the 7th generation daughter, Muriel Doris Sherrell (1909 – 2000), who then bequeathed it to her daughter, the ring’s previous modern-day owner. Several of these women were recorded to have had sons, yet the ring’s ownership history is marked by a remarkably pure passage from mothers to daughters, sustained and unbroken through eight generations, from 1723 to the present day. It’s possible the ring was made prior to its inscription year of 1723. Examples with scalloped and dotted enamel inlay and carved floral shoulders are usually dated c. 1680-1710; those made after 1710 often feature simplified shanks and rayed ring “butts”. For similar Stuart crystal rings, refer to British Museum AF.1571, AF.1577, AF.1581, and AF.1591.
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