c. 1790-1800 Diamond Bague à l’Enfantement

A c. 1790-1800 bague à l’Enfantement, French or West European, the rectangular ring head with a 5.4 x 4.6 mm old mine cut diamond surrounded by floral melee diamonds, all inlaid against cobalt black glass, the rose gold setting tapering via triangular shoulders into a crisp knife-edge shank. Primary historical sources such as the 15 July 1786 edition of ‘Cabinet des Modes’, a French fashion magazine, describe what was then a new fashion in “very large” rings: “a large diamond, a large brilliant stone is set in the middle of an oval, rectangular, lozenge, plain squared, octagonal ‘pierre de composition’ [Strass paste glass]. In the middle of this ‘pierre de composition’, the diamond is surrounded with other fine stones, or roses, or it is alone” (p. 137). This 1786 article goes on to identify designs containing “little stars” as ‘bague au firmament’, and designs defined by a large central stone (alone or adorned by smaller side stones) as ‘bague à l’Enfantement’. Of the latter, “it is necessary that the setting matches the surrounded [central] stone in a manner which flatters the eye, the only judge of taste.”

According to historical lore, these glass-and-diamond plaque rings were designed by French jewelers to celebrate the long-awaited birth of heirs to the French throne; after 11 years of marriage, and plagued by rumors of Louis XVI’s impotency, Marie Antoinette gave birth to the Dauphin (Louis Joseph Xavier François) in 1781 and her second son (Louis XVII) in 1785. The moniker ‘bague à l’Enfantement’, literally “childbirth ring”, would support this design origin tale. Furthermore, the 1786 ‘Cabinet des Modes’ article mentioned that firmament and l’Enfantement rings were a fashion “less than two years old”, which would date their design inception to c. 1784-85, neatly aligning with the period right before and after the birth of Louis XVII.

While Marie and her sons did not survive the French Revolution, Firmament and l’Enfantement rings curiously continued to be made throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries. Several post-Revolution c. 1790s French examples in the Koch collection (cat. 962, 964, 965, 967, 968) show the same designs, but with silver shanks to reflect wartime gold scarcity. The c. 1796 portrait of Madame Catherine Bruguière by Antoine-Jean Gros shows the subject wearing a halo-less l’Enfantement ring of a similar design type as the present ring. Popularity also expanded to the rest of Europe: English variants were made with royal blue enamel or Bristol glass; a 1798 design drawing by Pere Arguér y Rosés features a Spanish interpretation of the Firmament ring (Llibres de Passanties, fol. 1571).

Surviving period design drawings (e.g. the 1786 ‘Cabinet des Modes’ engraving, V&A D.320-1899) show a wide color palette for the paste grounds; in addition to the predominate shade of royal blue, Firmament and l’Enfantement rings were made with purple, puce, green, yellow, red, and black grounds. The black paste of the present ring is related to its blue counterparts, as both blue and black glass were made by including a cobalt compound in a glass melt. Only a small amount of cobalt is required to show a noticeable amount of blue, while those with increased cobalt content would fire to a midnight black. For examples of halo-less black paste and diamond plaque rings, see Musée National de la Renaissance (inv Ea15531 Salomon de Rothschild bequest), Fries Museum (inv. J06868), and Musées d’Art et d’Histoire de La Rochelle (inv MAH.1951.10.3).
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