c.1780 Portrait Miniature Ring of an Officer

A large c. 1780 early Neoclassical portrait ring, probably west European, featuring a miniature of a gentleman officer beneath domed cover glass, with a surrounding halo of cushion-cut quartz crystal. The ring face design—oval portrait within a gem halo—is a largely unaltered continuation of Rococo portrait rings. However, whereas Rococo portrait rings are diminutive in scale and often weigh about 3 grams, the present ring is monumental and hefty at 13.5 grams, representing the radical scale revolution in ring design that emerged around 1780. The present ring’s setting and shank design also represents a departure from Rococo workmanship: gone are the florid ornamentation and scrollwork; neoclassical settings feature smooth tapering curves, balanced contours, and continuous lines. The present ring’s crisp knife-edge shank and flared shoulders are similar to a c. 1780 German portrait ring featuring Frederic the Great in the Koch Collection (see cat. 1052, Rings: The Alice and Louis Koch Collection by Anna Beatriz Chadour). The present ring’s seamless shank-to-head connection and curved molding (designed to comfortably fit against the finger’s curvature) also bears resemblance to a c.1780 portrait ring in the British Museum (AF.1481). The setting being of a lower karat gold is quite common for European continental rings made during the last two decades of the 18th century, due to a gold scarcity wrought by the French Revolutionary Wars. The present subject is most likely a military officer due to the combination of his red coat with a powdered ramillies wig and black stock tie— all three sartorial details were favored by officers and can be seen in late 18th c military portraits like that of Charles Cornwallis (c. 1783) by Thomas Gainsborough, Honorable Francis North (c. 1780) by George Romney, and Lieutenant Squire of the British Marines by John Singleton Copley. A crimson neck ribbon bearing a military order (only tip is shown) suggests the subject was either of aristocratic background (like Cornwallis and North), or of a higher officer rank.
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