Jewellery

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1905. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII FINGER RINGS Classification--Anglo-Saxon gold and niello rings--Jewish rings--Papal rings--Posy and marriage rings--Mourning and portrait rings--Signification of stones. FOR many reasons finger ring's may be considered as the most interesting of all objects of jewellery, because of the widespread personal interest which attaches to them. Finger rings are more particularly the product of civilisation than necklaces, bracelets, or earrings, because, as primitive man was essentially a workman and a tiller of the soil, rings would be in his way, and were consequently little used. In fact, finger rings are not common among savage tribes, and even when they do exist they are of slight interest, being composed of plaited grass or fibre, and, at the best, circles of bone, shell, or tortoise-shell. Rings do not seem to have passed through any regular course of development, as brooches have, but they have followed certain styles with considerable accuracy, so it is possible to classify them with some degree of usefulness, i I think that C rings have, so far, been more written about than any other personal form of jewellery, and, also, there have been some noted collectors of rings, who in their endeavours to arrange their collections in some understandable form, have suggested to the critic several new heads under which to classify them as a whole. For instance, Sir John Evans possesses an unrivalled collection of posy rings, and they are arranged alphabetically under the first letter of the posy. A book might well be written on this most interesting division alone. The late Sir Wollaston Franks collected more promiscuously, and his collection, now in the British Museum, is noteworthy as being the most representative of rings of all kinds that has ever been br...