About the Work

A Medieval Ring Brooch

Gold, France or England, c. 1300

Weight 3.9 g.; Diameter 25mm.

Flat gold band with punched dots imitating twisted wire on the inner and outer rim of the circle, the exterior rim forms a frame with fluted foliage, engraved in Latin in black letter Lombardic script on the band, pin attached with a circular hoop; the fastening pin bears a French control mark “ET” denoting that it has travelled through a French assay office in the 19th century. The engraving reads ‘DEVM TIME ET MANDA[TA] EVIS [sic] OBSERVA’ from Ecclesiastes (12: 13) which translates as “Fear God and observe His commandments.”

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Provenance

Comtesse Martine-Marie-Octavie Pol de Béhague (1870-1939), Paris; thence by descent to Marquis Jean-Louis Hubert de Ganay (1922-2013), France; see Antiquités et Objets d'Art: Collection de Martine, Comtesse de Béhague, Provenant de la Succession du Marquis de Ganay, Sotheby's, Monaco, 5 December 1987, lot 204; Private English Collection.

Literature

For a detailed study of brooches, including the ring brooch, see R. Lightbown, Medieval European Jewellery, and on the “ring” or circle design, pp. 147-158. As Lightbown explains, “the ring brooch was broadly speaking the simplest and least assuming of mediaeval brooches, since it was essentially a practical fastener” (p. 147). There are many variants of the circular ring brooch, including quatrefoil, hexagonal, wheel-like and even heart-shaped. Stones, unusually sapphires and rubies, are often set in flat or raised collets. Many are inscribed with Lombardic letters (as here), some with amorous, others with religious or magical inscriptions. Symbols, heraldic devices, and mottos also appear on the “ring” brooch. The present inscription appears to be unrecorded on brooches. The fluted edges are more common on pendants and medallions; they occur similarly chased in Waterton’s sapphire bishop’s ring in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. 90-1899), dated c. fourteenth century (Oman 1930, n. 261).