{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O377162"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O377162/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HV9359/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HV9359/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2015HV9359","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HN3140","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HN3138","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HN3139","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV9358","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV9360","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV9361","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O377162/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O377162","accessionNumber":"872-1871","objectType":"Ring","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Rings have been given as signs of love and marriage since Greek and Roman times. This silver ring has been engraved and  decorated with niello, a shiny black paste which is pressed into the engraved pattern and polished smooth. The bezel of this ring is nielloed with the profile head of a young woman. Although this might have been intended as a portrait of a particular woman, it is more likely to be an idealised beauty. It may have served a similar purpose to the maiolica dishes known as 'belle donne' or 'beautiful women', where idealised female portraits are associated with romantic verses or the names of local women and are thought to have been gifts, possibly as part of betrothal or wedding ceremonies. \n\nAlthough a legal marriage in the medieval world could be formed  simply by a couple exchanging vows and sealing the agreement with a handclasp, the exchange of a ring solemnised the  occasion and could act as a visual proof if the marriage was later disputed. The back of the hoop is formed as a pair of clasped hands, a motif known as 'mani in fede' or hands clasped in faith - representing the handclasp of the  marriage service. \r\n\r\nThis ring forms part of a collection of 760 rings and engraved gems from the collection of Edmund Waterton (1830-87).   Waterton was one of the foremost ring collectors of the nineteenth century and was the author of several articles on rings, a   book on English devotion to the Virgin Mary and an unfinished catalogue of his collection (the manuscript is now the National Art   Library). Waterton was noted for his extravagance and financial troubles caused him to place his collection in pawn with the   London jeweller Robert Phillips. When he was unable to repay the loan, Phillips offered to sell the collection to the Museum and it   was acquired in 1871. A small group of rings which Waterton had held back were acquired in 1899. ","physicalDescription":"Flat circular bezel engraved and nielloed with a woman's left profile within an octagon; the shoulders formed of roundesl filled with rosettes. The back of the hoop forms a 'fede' motif of clasped hands. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"Niello","id":"x40185"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engraving","id":"AAT53829"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver and niello","categories":[{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Silver","id":"THES251836"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2015HV9359","2015HN3140","2015HN3138","2015HN3139","2015HV9358","2015HV9360","2015HV9361"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"014","id":"THES407876"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Ring","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1400-1500","earliest":"1400-01-01","latest":"1500-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"1.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"2.0","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"2.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"From the Waterton collection . A similar ring from Waterton's collection was shown at the Ironmongers Hall Exhibition in 1861 and described as Florentine. The catalogue states that 'These rings, of which Mr Waterton possesses 6 more, are Florentine, and rare, the owner only knowing of two more beside his own. They belong to a very interesting class of nielloed rings, and it is supposed that they were presents from ladies to their lovers.'\n5 of the 11 nielloed silver rings which Waterton listed in his manuscript catalogue were acquired in Rome or Florence in the 1850s and 60s.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Silver ring with a niello female portrait, the back of the hoop formed of clasped hands. Italy 1400-1500.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>A catalogue of the antiquities and works of art exhibited at Ironmongers Hall  in the month of May 1861</u>, edited by George Russell French, London 1869, vol ii, p.508"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Oman, Charles, <u>Catalogue of rings in the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, London, 1930, reprinted Ipswich, 1993, p.103, cat. 641"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Waterton, Edmund <u>Dactyliotheca Watertoniana: a descriptive catalogue of the finger-rings in the collection of Mrs Waterton,</u> (manuscript, 1866,  now in National Art Library), pp.129-30"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Waterton, Edmund  <u>'On niello'</u>, <i>Archaeological Journal</i>, vol XIX, London 1862, pp.323-339"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["872-1871"],"accessionNumberNum":"872","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1871,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2016JE8965"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-15","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}