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Thumb ring
Unknown - Enlarge image
Thumb ring
- Place of origin:
India (possibly, made)
Pakistan (possibly, made) - Date:
ca. 1600-50 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Gold, chased and engraved, and set with rubies and emeralds; the inside enamelled
- Museum number:
IM.207-1920
- Gallery location:
South Asia, room 41, case 19
The high quality of this thumb ring strongly suggests that it was a courtly piece. Similar rings are seen in portraits of the Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan and their sons in court paintings of about 1620–1630. It is one of a small group of objects using the same technique of setting rubies and emeralds (and in some of the group, minute diamonds) in dense patterns against a ground of chased gold, all dating to about the same period. The thumb ring is enamelled on the inside, as is often the case with Mughal jewellery. Here, however, the motifs and colours of the enamel are strikingly European and this may suggest that the enamelling was done by a European craftsman at the Mughal court, of whom there were a small number at this time. Augustin Hiriart of Bordeaux, for example, produced designs for thrones for Jahangir and Shah Jahan, and was a skilled enameller.
