Ring
ca.1880 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The large carnelian set in this ring is engraved with a lion rampant and the motto Noli irritare leones (Do not provoke lions), set within a garter. It is engraved in reverse to serve as a signet. Signet rings and seals would have been 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. The practical and legal uses of signet rings had declined by the mid nineteenth century but they remained fashionable jewels, particularly for men, and were a way to indicate status and family allegiance.
Lieutenant George Babington Croft Lyons, the owner of this ring, had a keen interest in heraldry and bequeathed a very large collection of seals to the British Museum. As Charles Hercules Read, who wrote his obituary, recalled: 'My first recollection of him must have been in the early nineties when he not infrequently came to the Museum [the British Museum] bringing some prize for comparison, a piece of English china or an heraldic seal. As Sir Wollaston Franks was keenly interested in both subjects he and Lyons soon became intimate.' This interest in heraldry explains why Croft Lyons would have enjoyed having such an impressive signet ring. One of Croft Lyons' generous legacies was the sum of £15 000 to the Society of Antiquaries to create an updated version of the 'Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary' based on the “Ordinary of Arms” by John Woody Papworth published from 1847 to 1874. In 1940, Sir Anthony Richard Wagner became director and general editor of this project, - in a few years, many thousands of cards with information about medieval coats of arms were written, allegedly by volunteers during inactive periods of firewatching duties during the war.These cards were eventually transferred to a computer database in the late 1970s, an early effort at digitisation. The four volumes which resulted are now freely available online through open access.
Croft Lyons put together an important collection of metalwork, furniture and textiles which he bequeathed to the V&A on his death in 1926.
Lieutenant George Babington Croft Lyons, the owner of this ring, had a keen interest in heraldry and bequeathed a very large collection of seals to the British Museum. As Charles Hercules Read, who wrote his obituary, recalled: 'My first recollection of him must have been in the early nineties when he not infrequently came to the Museum [the British Museum] bringing some prize for comparison, a piece of English china or an heraldic seal. As Sir Wollaston Franks was keenly interested in both subjects he and Lyons soon became intimate.' This interest in heraldry explains why Croft Lyons would have enjoyed having such an impressive signet ring. One of Croft Lyons' generous legacies was the sum of £15 000 to the Society of Antiquaries to create an updated version of the 'Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary' based on the “Ordinary of Arms” by John Woody Papworth published from 1847 to 1874. In 1940, Sir Anthony Richard Wagner became director and general editor of this project, - in a few years, many thousands of cards with information about medieval coats of arms were written, allegedly by volunteers during inactive periods of firewatching duties during the war.These cards were eventually transferred to a computer database in the late 1970s, an early effort at digitisation. The four volumes which resulted are now freely available online through open access.
Croft Lyons put together an important collection of metalwork, furniture and textiles which he bequeathed to the V&A on his death in 1926.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Gold set with an engraved carnelian intaglio |
| Brief description | Gold signet ring with an oval bezel set with a cornelian intaglio of the crest and motto of Lieut.-Colonel G B Croft Lyons F.S.A., England, ca.1880 |
| Physical description | Gold signet ring with an oval bezel set with a carnelian intaglio of the crest and motto of Lieut.-Colonel G B Croft Lyons F.S.A. Transverse oval bezel, hoop is a plain band. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Noli irritare leones (The crest and motto of Lieut.-Colonel G B Croft Lyons F.S.A. - Do not irritate lions) |
| Credit line | Croft Lyons Bequest |
| Object history | 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. He was an early member of the Pewter Society (founded in 1918) 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.Donated objects to the British Museum, including drawings by Bibiena to the BM in 1906, and a collection of Ashanti gold weights in 1926. Engraved portrait in the British Museum (1927,1215.2) |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | The large carnelian set in this ring is engraved with a lion rampant and the motto Noli irritare leones (Do not provoke lions), set within a garter. It is engraved in reverse to serve as a signet. Signet rings and seals would have been 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. The practical and legal uses of signet rings had declined by the mid nineteenth century but they remained fashionable jewels, particularly for men, and were a way to indicate status and family allegiance. Lieutenant George Babington Croft Lyons, the owner of this ring, had a keen interest in heraldry and bequeathed a very large collection of seals to the British Museum. As Charles Hercules Read, who wrote his obituary, recalled: 'My first recollection of him must have been in the early nineties when he not infrequently came to the Museum [the British Museum] bringing some prize for comparison, a piece of English china or an heraldic seal. As Sir Wollaston Franks was keenly interested in both subjects he and Lyons soon became intimate.' This interest in heraldry explains why Croft Lyons would have enjoyed having such an impressive signet ring. One of Croft Lyons' generous legacies was the sum of £15 000 to the Society of Antiquaries to create an updated version of the 'Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary' based on the “Ordinary of Arms” by John Woody Papworth published from 1847 to 1874. In 1940, Sir Anthony Richard Wagner became director and general editor of this project, - in a few years, many thousands of cards with information about medieval coats of arms were written, allegedly by volunteers during inactive periods of firewatching duties during the war.These cards were eventually transferred to a computer database in the late 1970s, an early effort at digitisation. The four volumes which resulted are now freely available online through open access. Croft Lyons put together an important collection of metalwork, furniture and textiles which he bequeathed to the V&A on his death in 1926. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | M.853-1927 |
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| Record created | November 9, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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