c.1760-80 Swivel Double Portrait Ring

A rare c. 1760-80 Rococo double portrait flip ring, featuring miniatures of two ladies set back-to-back in a crystal compartment, mounted on a swivel mechanism to allow articulated movement within the 18k gold setting. The scooped bright-cut embellishments throughout are typical of late Rococo continental workmanship. Double portrait flip rings of this type were mostly made in Germany and Austria, and are rather unique in construction— that is, distinctive in the way a swiveling compartment is set within and snaps into a fixed frame-like head. Flip rings made elsewhere in Europe generally feature simpler construction, with a frameless head swiveling freely from the shoulders. When mounted with double portraits, a swivel ring most commonly denoted family relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, as well as siblings. Six late Rococo flip rings are in the Koch collection (cat. 1032, 1033, 1045, 1053, 1054, 1055); within this group, three feature double portraits, with two being commemorative rings for the Austrian royal family (husband-wife Franz Stephan I & Maria Theresa; mother-son Maria Theresa & Joseph II) and one featuring an anonymous couple. The women of the present ring are possibly sisters. The wired lace cap of one woman, and the coiffed hairstyle of the other can be both dated to the 1760-70s decades, disallowing the possibility that one portrait is an earlier representation than the other.
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