Parcel gilt iron hoop, chased with leaves and female terms lined with gold, probably by Eusebio Zuloaga, or his son Plácido, Spain, mid 19th century

Parcel gilt iron hoop, chased with leaves and female terms lined with gold

Given by Dame Joan Evans

This ring was formerly part of the collection of Dame Joan Evans (1893-1977), art historian and collector. Early on she collected gems and jewels which resulted in the 1921 book, English Jewellery from the 5th Century BC to 1800. She published widely on jewellery, French medieval art and architecture. Evans was elected the first woman president of the Society of Antiquaries in 1959 (through 1964). She was a trustee of the British Museum (1963-67). In her personal life, she donated time and money to many charitable historic causes, nearly all of them anonymously. Her will left collections to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Birmingham City Art Gallery.

She gave her gem and jewellery collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum through a series of gifts, beginning in 1960. Her association with the museum went back to her childhood and she developed personal friendships with the museum curators and Directors. In 1975, two years before her death aged 84, Joan Evans made over her remaining jewels to the museum, choosing to remain anonymous during her lifetime. As she wrote jokingly to curator Charles Oman, her village was ‘divided into those who think it must have been me and those who say it cannot have been because I am so shabby.’

In her final years, offering her collection to the museum, she wrote movingly that ‘My jewels come to your Department with love and gratitude. It has been kind to me for 65 years.’

The sculptural female figures on the shoulders of this ring were inspired by Renaissance design of the sixteenth century. It has been attributed to the Spanish Zuloaga family. Eusebio Zuloaga (1808-1898) and his son Plácido were descendants of a Basque family of gunmakers and armourers. In 1851 Eusebio won a prize medal in the Great Exhibition in London, and in 1855 Plácido's work was praised in the Paris exhibition. Eusebio revived the art of damascening, a technique of decorating metalwork by inlaying metal wire or strips and his son Plácido continued to work with this technique.

M.199-1962