Ring thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Jewellery, Rooms 91, The William and Judith Bollinger Gallery

Ring

1400-1500 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Rings engraved with religious figures or scenes are often known as ‘iconographic rings’. They were decorated with the popular saints of the middle ages: Catherine, Barbara,
Christopher, George and Margaret as well as figures of the Virgin Mary, Christ or the Three Kings. These rings were worn as a sign of faith but were also believed to offer protection from both spiritual and earthly dangers. Pregnant women prayed to St Margaret for a safe delivery whilst travellers appealed to St Christopher. Rings with a ridged hoop divided into two or three panels are generally believed to be English.

Two of the saints engraved on this ring are particularly associated with women. St Catherine of Alexandria was one of the 'virgin martyrs', cited as an examplar of purity and modesty to young women. St Margaret of Antioch is often shown killing a dragon or emerging unscathed from the dragon's stomach and as such was thought to be a powerful protector for women in childbirth.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Engraved silver
Brief description
Silver ring, depicting St Catherine, St Margaret and an unidentified saint, with engraved sprigs on triple fluted shoulders, England, 1400-1500.
Physical description
Silver ring, depicting three saints, with engraved sprigs on triple fluted shoulders.
Dimensions
  • Height: 2.3cm
  • Width: 2.2cm
  • Depth: 1.1cm
Credit line
Bequeathed by Lt. Col. G. B. Croft-Lyons FSA
Object history
Acquired at Preston, Lancashire. Part of the Croft Lyons collection.

Lt-Col George Babington Croft Lyons George Babington Croft Lyons was an antiquary and collector who loaned, and later bequeathed, 978 objects (ceramics, sculpture, metalwork (particularly silver and pewter), textiles and woodwork) and 391 photographic negatives to the Museum. George Babington Croft Lyons was born on 15 September 1855. Nothing is known of his early life. On 23 May 1874 he was promoted to Lieutenant with the Essex Rifles. He was admitted Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, on 7 January 1904 and served on its Executive Council from 1908 to 1926; he was a Vice-President from 1917 to 1921. Croft Lyons was also actively involved with the Burlington Fine Arts Club, publishing a number of articles in the Burlington Magazine. Like his friend, George Salting, when Croft Lyons’s collection outgrew his house in Neville Street, Kensington, he loaned works for exhibition at the South Kensington Museum; these included ceramics, sculpture, metalwork (particularly silver and pewter), textiles and woodwork. Croft Lyons died in London on 22 June 1926, aged 71. He bequeathed to the Museum all the objects currently exhibited on loan (these amounted to 978 objects and 391 photographic negatives) together with ‘ten other objects to be selected from the works of art remaining in his house so far as these are not already disposed of by specific bequests’. The British Museum, National Gallery and Birmingham Art Gallery were also beneficiaries of Croft Lyons’ bequest.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Rings engraved with religious figures or scenes are often known as ‘iconographic rings’. They were decorated with the popular saints of the middle ages: Catherine, Barbara,
Christopher, George and Margaret as well as figures of the Virgin Mary, Christ or the Three Kings. These rings were worn as a sign of faith but were also believed to offer protection from both spiritual and earthly dangers. Pregnant women prayed to St Margaret for a safe delivery whilst travellers appealed to St Christopher. Rings with a ridged hoop divided into two or three panels are generally believed to be English.

Two of the saints engraved on this ring are particularly associated with women. St Catherine of Alexandria was one of the 'virgin martyrs', cited as an examplar of purity and modesty to young women. St Margaret of Antioch is often shown killing a dragon or emerging unscathed from the dragon's stomach and as such was thought to be a powerful protector for women in childbirth.
Bibliographic reference
Oman, Charles, Catalogue of rings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1930, reprinted Ipswich, 1993, cat. 725
Collection
Accession number
M.818-1926

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Record createdMarch 3, 2006
Record URL
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