Ring
ca. 1793 (made)
On display at V&A South Kensington
Jewellery, Rooms 91, The William and Judith Bollinger Gallery| Artist/Maker | |
| Place Of Origin |
The two portraits stamped on the hoop of this silver ring commemorate the revolutionaries Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93) and Louis-Michel Lepeletier de St Fargeau (1760–93). They were both assassinated during the revolutionary upheavals of the 1790s. Marat was famously stabbed in his bath by Charlotte Corday in July 1793 and Lepeletier de St Fargeau was killed by a royalist named Philippe Nicholas Maris de Paris in January 1793 as a protest against his vote to behead the King, Louis XVI. These two figures were often commemorated together on jewellery as revolutionary martyrs on mass produced, often base metal jewellery made for Revolutionary supporters.
object details
| Categories | |
| Object Type | |
| Materials and Techniques | Stamped and applied silver |
| Brief Description | Silver ring, the applied bezel stamped with portraits of Jean-Paul Marat and Louis Michel Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, France, about 1793. |
| Physical Description | Silver commemorative ring, the applied bezel stamped with portraits of Jean-Paul Marat and Louis Michel Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | ex Waterton Collection |
| Historical context | A mass produced souvenir. The assassination of the implacable Jacobin, Marat, by Charlotte Corday, intensified The Terror of 1793-4. Other rings of this type are in the Musee Carnavalet and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. An identical ring with gold portraits is in the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim in Germany. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | The two portraits stamped on the hoop of this silver ring commemorate the revolutionaries Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93) and Louis-Michel Lepeletier de St Fargeau (1760–93). They were both assassinated during the revolutionary upheavals of the 1790s. Marat was famously stabbed in his bath by Charlotte Corday in July 1793 and Lepeletier de St Fargeau was killed by a royalist named Philippe Nicholas Maris de Paris in January 1793 as a protest against his vote to behead the King, Louis XVI. These two figures were often commemorated together on jewellery as revolutionary martyrs on mass produced, often base metal jewellery made for Revolutionary supporters. |
| Collection | |
| Accession Number | 931-1871 |
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| record created | July 13, 2006 |
| Record URL |