Gold ring with an oval bezel with an antique onyx cameo depicting a man wearing a cap in a 'Roman' setting, possibly England, ca.1825

Gold ring with an oval coronet bezel set with an antique onyx cameo depicting the head of a Black man wearing a cap in a 'Roman' setting

Townshend Bequest

In one of the standardised settings in the bequest made by the Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend.

Chauncy Hare Townshend was a friend of Charles Dickens and later his literary executor. He bequeathed to the Museum a large collection of objects including oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, drawings and books. Chauncy Hare Townsend was born on 20 April 1798 and changed the spelling of his surname to Townshend in1828. He was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and published his first collection of poetry in 1821. In 1840, at the house of the mesmerist Dr John Elliston, he befriended Charles Dickens, who later served as his literary executor. At the time of his death, Townshend owned the manuscript of Great Expectations. On account of his poor constitution, Townsend lived abroad for long periods of time. He died in London on 25 February 1868. Townshend left his library to the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; his bequest to the South Kensington Museum comprised 186 oil paintings and 177 watercolour drawings, 832 volumes, 390 drawings, 1,815 prints, and gems, precious stones, cameos and intaglios

The art of engraving gemstones can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 8th century BC and earlier. Techniques passed down to the Egyptians and then to the Romans. There were major revivals of interest in engraved gems in Europe during the Byantine era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. At each stage cameos and intaglios, these skillful carvings on a minute scale, were much prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment.

This ring holds a layered onyx cameo of the profile head of a Black man wearing a cap. The layers of the onyx have been skillfully used to set the figure against a light coloured ground and to create the detail of the cap.

The ring was part of the collection of gemstones and engraved hardstones bequeathed to the V&A by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend in 1869.

1810-1869