c. 1790-1800 Diamond & Green Strass Glass Firmament-type Ring

A c. 1790-1800 French firmament-type Neoclassical plaque ring, the large elongated oval head set with a starry lattice of rose-cut diamonds inlaid against foiled green Strass glass, the rose gold setting with a suspended diamond halo and trifurcated shank. Neoclassical diamond plaque rings set against green glass are rare: while numerous examples in blue survive in museum collections, only a single example in green can be found in the Salomon de Rothschild bequest of rings to the Musée National de la Renaissance (Inv Ea15525). Like the present ring, the Rothschild example also features a suspended openwork diamond halo and guilloche-style foiling beneath the glass. Surviving period design drawings suggest that fewer rings with a green ground were made to begin with, thus explaining their scarcity. Of the 12 ring designs illustrated in the 1786 engraving from Cabinet des Modes, a French fashion magazine, eight are in blue, while only one features green paste (see Rijksmuseum BI-1959-529-33). Another late 18th c design drawing in the Victoria & Albert museum shows 15 firmament designs, with 14 being blue and only one being green (design no. 51, V&A D.320-1899).

Bague au firmament is sometimes an umbrella term for late 18th c Neoclassical plaque rings with diamonds set against colored glass or enamel. These rings are French in design origin and, according to lore, arose from the mood of national celebration that preceded and followed Marie Antoinette’s long-awaited pregnancies. Primary historical sources such as the 15 July 1786 edition of Cabinet des Modes describe a new fashion in “very large” rings set with diamonds against color pastes, which was “very different from those that were worn less than two years ago” (i.e. c. 1784-85, aligning with Marie Antoinette’s second pregnancy and the birth of Louis XVII). This 1786 article goes on to identify designs containing “little stars” as bague au firmament, and designs defined by a large central stone as bague à l’Enfantement (literally ‘childbirth ring’, in celebration of the Queen).

While both Marie and her sons would perish in the French Revolution, Firmament and l’Enfantement rings continued to be made throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries. Designs not only expanded to the rest of Europe, but also expanded in diversity of appearance to feature a variety of shapes, color grounds, and inlay designs. As attested by a c. 1781-5 design drawing by Jean Rasp in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, many of these glass-and-diamond plaque rings took on designs beyond firmament or l’Enfantement to include geometric and floral lattices (such as the present example), initials and rebuses, flora and birds. Examples made during the 1790s sometimes feature pinned openwork halos that appear to ‘float’ around the ring head; a neat trifurcated ‘fleur-de-lys’ shank is another trait popular around this time. For rings with similar form or design type as the present example, see the Walters Art Museum (57.1759 and 57.1763), Villa Braghieri Albesani (Italian National Catalogue Code 0800258712), and Musée National de la Renaissance (Salomon de Rothschild bequest Ea15548).
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