Early 17th c Enameled Emerald Ring c. 1630

An early 17th century English Jacobean emerald ring, c. 1630, in a 22k yellow gold setting with white enamel and polychrome ornaments, the stone GIA certified natural Colombian. Rings featuring single table-cut stones in boxed rub-over bezels were already popular during the Renaissance; by 1600, this standard form had simplified into an elegant version with the head and shoulders tapering seamlessly into the hoop. The present ring type was variously made in plain yellow gold or enameled settings. An example in enamel is illustrated on pl. 29b of “British Rings 800-1914” by Charles Oman. A simpler version in white enamel, also early 17th c, was discovered in Hampshire, England and registered with Portable Schemes (PAS 2018T712). Another similar ring, c. 1630, is in the Nordiska Musset (NM.0219161). Yet another Jacobean ring of this type is illustrated on p.40 of “Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery” by Diana Scarisbrick. The present ring can be attributed to a relatively narrow time frame due to the rarity and specificity of its enameling design. White enameled jewels with polychrome ‘cosse de pois’-type ornaments (often in a palette of yellows, greens, and black pointillé linework) were made briefly in the years around c.1630; few examples survive: there’s a ring and a cross in the Victoria & Albert museum (M.6-2016, M.127-1975), a pendant in the British Museum (1890,0901.42), and a pendant in the Rijksmuseum (BK-17054). Further links can be made to early 17th c jewelry in the Cheapside Hoard, namely, a ring with an enameled flowerhead posterior (p. 199, “The Cheapside Hoard: London’s Lost Jewels” by Hazel Forsyth), a perfume bottle with white and polychrome enamel, as well as a white enamel and black linework diamond ring (p. 167 from the same book). The present ring’s curvilinear cloisonné-like gold inlay, paired with black linework, is also similar in character to several white enamel fan-handles in the Cheapside Hoard (see p. 158 of the same book).
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