{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O377703"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O377703/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O377703","accessionNumber":"990-1871","objectType":"Ring","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Iron rings were worn across the Roman Empire. The historian Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, explains that their use signified a warlike valour and simplicity. They were often worn by soliders or by enslaved people. In Appian's description of the aftermath of a battle in the Punic Wars, he recorded that slain tribunes could be identified by their gold rings, while ordinary soldiers wore iron. \n\nThis ring forms part of a collection of over 600 rings and engraved gems from the collection of Edmund Waterton (1830-81). 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.\r\n\r\nEdmund Waterton used the fortune which was made by his family’s involvement in the British Guiana sugar plantations to put his collection together. His grandfather owned a plantation known as Walton Hall and his father, Charles Waterton, went to Guiana as a young man to help run La Jalousie and Fellowship, plantations which belonged to his uncles. When slavery was abolished in the British territories, Charles Waterton claimed £16283 6s 7d in government compensation and was recorded as having 300 enslaved people on the Walton Hall estate. \r\n","physicalDescription":"Iron hoop, large transverse bezel with a recessed setting for a stone, now lacking. The letters C and S in gold foil set on the shoulders. ","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"iron","id":"AAT11002"}],"techniques":[{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Cast iron","categories":[{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"022","id":"THES407884"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Ring","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Roman Empire","id":"x29105"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"0-200 AD","earliest":"0001-01-01","latest":"0200-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"2.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"24/08/2011","earliest":"2011-08-24","latest":"2011-08-24"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"3.0","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"24/08/2011","earliest":"2011-08-24","latest":"2011-08-24"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Height of bezel","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Iron ring with transverse bezel with a setting for a stone, now missing. Roman Empire, 1rst or 2nd century AD.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'British Guiana 2426 (Walton Hall)', Legacies of British Slave-ownership database, http://web.archive.org/web/20221205150942/http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/7157"},{"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)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Oman, Charles, <u>Catalogue of rings in the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, London, 1930, reprinted Ipswich, 1993"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["990-1871"],"accessionNumberNum":"990","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1871,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-07-25","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}