Thumb ring, white nephrite jade, inset rubies, pale emeralds and gold, Mughal empire, 18th century, formerly in the Guthrie Collection

An asymmetric thumb ring fashioned in white nephrite jade with a reasonable polish on all surfaces. The inner surface is smooth and plain and the outer surface has been inlaid with fine gold "wire" that follows the edges at both ends. In between the two gold boundaries, there is a symmetric flower and leaf design of nine inset flat-topped ruby cabochons together with a single central, ruby (or possibly a spinel) cabochon, together with pale emerald cabochons. The stones have been set into reflective and possibly coloured, closed-back gold settings. Detail is also provided by additional inlaid gold "wire" which has then been polished flush to the surface of the ring.

This archer's thumb ring was originally in the Guthrie collection and was purchased for the sum of £27-10-0, when he sold 81 of his objects to The India Museum in 1868. It was subsequently transferred to The South Kensington Museum (later renamed The Victoria & Albert Museum) in 1879.

Charles Seton Guthrie was an important collector of eastern coins and Mughal Empire jade and rock crystal objects. He was the second son of Scottish parents, both of whom were from noble and landed families, and his father worked for the East India Company in Calcutta.
Guthrie most probably developed his interest in jade and rock crystal when he studied geology as a 17 year old cadet in 1825 in Addiscombe, and he joined the Bengal Engineers in 1828.
Through his family’s established connection with the Inglis and Lister families, he became acquainted with Harry Inglis and his Anglo-Indian wife Sophia (nee Lister). He may well have received gifts of objects that Harry had acquired as proceeds from his Indian military campaigns. Harry was the son and heir of George Inglis who owned Inglis & Co., a large Indian trading company.
During his time in India, Charles Guthrie enhanced his collections with acquisitions financed by his army pay and also income from properties in his late mother’s estate.
He subsequently retired at the honorary rank of Colonel in 1857, although he returned to England in 1855, at the same time as Harry and Sophia, due to having 2 years of accumulated leave.
Following Harry’s death in 1860, his embalmed body was returned to India, accompanied by Sophia and Charles, where it was interred in an above-ground tomb. Sophia inherited Harry’s vast estate, which almost certainly contained many fine jewels and Mughal objects. Sophia began living together with Charles in Calcutta, bearing him a son in 1862. Following a financially significant arrangement being agreed by Sophia with Charles, the two eventually married in 1863 with the family returning to England a short time thereafter.
Sophia died in 1866, with Charles being named as an executor with instruction to liquidate her un-itemised English estate which included “jewels, trinkets and shawls”.
Soon thereafter, in 1868, Guthrie sold part of his collection of jade and rock crystal objects to The India Museum and his large coin collection to a museum in Germany. Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie died in 1874 and the remainder of his collections was sold at auction, in accordance with the terms of his will, with many objects finding their way into other important collections and then subsequently to the museum.

This thumb ring was made within the Mughal empire in the 18th century. It is fashioned in white nephrite jade with a reasonable polish on all surfaces. The inner surface is smooth and plain and the outer surface has been inlaid with fine gold "wire" that follows the edges at both ends. In between these borders, there is a symmetrical flower and leaf design of nine inset flat-topped ruby cabochons together with a single central, ruby (or possibly a spinel) cabochon, together with pale emerald cabochons. The stones have been set into reflective and possibly coloured, closed-back gold settings. Detail is also provided by additional inlaid gold "wire" which has then been polished flush to the surface of the ring.
Nephrite jade was first introduced into the Mughal empire as a raw material from Khotan in the reign of the emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605), but no artefacts are known to have been made at court until the reign of his son, Jahangir (r. 1605-1627). Jade was used to fashion royal wine cups, dagger and sword hilts and jewellery, and was probably seen only at the highest levels of the court. By the second half of the 17th century its use was increasingly common, and the jade was often studded with jewels set in gold that was so highly refined its softness allowed it to be shaped round the gemstones to hold them in place.
This thumbring came from the famous collection formed by Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie, who served in India from 1828 to 1857. He stayed in India for several years after his retirement, and was thus in a position to buy jades and other hardstones from the royal collections that were being broken up as British rule steadily encroached, leading to the 1857 Indian uprisings against the British.

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