Signet Ring
1650-1660 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This ring would have been used as a signet, pressed into hot wax to seal a letter or packet. Personal seals (secreta) provided an essential legal safeguard and were used to witness documents such as wills, deeds of gift, loans and commercial documents, personal letters and land indentures. A letter from Lord Berengario in Verona in 906 underscores the importance of the signet: ‘So that this may be more truly believed and more faithfully observed, we order this to be sealed with our ring, confirming it with our own hand’.
Signet rings could be engraved with a coat of arms or crest, an initial, a merchant's mark (a geometric symbol used to mark goods or personal belongings), or a personal symbol. Sixteenth and seventeenth century portraits show signet rings worn on the forefinger or thumb, presumably to make it easy to apply the ring to the wax by turning the hand. They were items of jewellery with a practical function but the use of precious metals and engraved hardstones indicates that they were also signs of status.
Signet rings could be engraved with a coat of arms or crest, an initial, a merchant's mark (a geometric symbol used to mark goods or personal belongings), or a personal symbol. Sixteenth and seventeenth century portraits show signet rings worn on the forefinger or thumb, presumably to make it easy to apply the ring to the wax by turning the hand. They were items of jewellery with a practical function but the use of precious metals and engraved hardstones indicates that they were also signs of status.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Gold with carnelian intaglio |
| Brief description | Gold signet ring, the oval bezel set with a carnelian intaglio depicting the arms of the Baduley family, England, 1650-1660 |
| Physical description | Gold signet ring, the oval bezel set with a cornelian intaglio depicting the arms of the Baduley family - a bend or between six crosses crosslet. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | coat of arms (Intaglio, the arms Baduley) |
| Credit line | Given by Miss Anna Newton |
| Object history | Said to have belonged to John Baduley, still living in 1675, who was the owner of a Bible presented to the museum with this ring. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This ring would have been used as a signet, pressed into hot wax to seal a letter or packet. Personal seals (secreta) provided an essential legal safeguard and were used to witness documents such as wills, deeds of gift, loans and commercial documents, personal letters and land indentures. A letter from Lord Berengario in Verona in 906 underscores the importance of the signet: ‘So that this may be more truly believed and more faithfully observed, we order this to be sealed with our ring, confirming it with our own hand’. Signet rings could be engraved with a coat of arms or crest, an initial, a merchant's mark (a geometric symbol used to mark goods or personal belongings), or a personal symbol. Sixteenth and seventeenth century portraits show signet rings worn on the forefinger or thumb, presumably to make it easy to apply the ring to the wax by turning the hand. They were items of jewellery with a practical function but the use of precious metals and engraved hardstones indicates that they were also signs of status. |
| Bibliographic reference | Oman, Charles, Catalogue of rings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1930, reprinted Ipswich, 1993, cat.506 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1644-1903 |
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| Record created | November 23, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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