Gold ring, with painted enamel, decorated with groups of figures in 17th century costume and with the inscription 'R.L. to T. and T. to K.L.', England, about 1652. Made for the town of Totnes, Devon.

Gold ring, with painted enamel, decorated with groups of figures in 17th century costume standing under stone arches. Painted with the inscription 'R.L. to T. and T. to K.L.', maker's mark B-incuse. The inside surface of the ring shows an area of reticulated gold - possibly some sort of soldering mark.

This ring, now known to be one of a pair, was bought for the museum in 1968. The pair to the ring, with a slightly different inscription 'RL to T and T to CL' is now in Totnes Museum, Devon. The rings' historical significance is known through William Cotton’s ‘A graphic and historical sketch of the antiquities of Totnes’, published in 1850 when the whereabouts of one ring only was known. He described the surviving ring as having been made to commemorate the building of the Church Walk in Totnes as a meeting place for merchants. The Church Walk was an open granite colonnade, built in 1611 and funded by the wealthy merchant and town mayor, Richard Lee. (fig 2). Although the building was demolished in the late 19th century, the columns, inscribed with the initials of Richard Lee and the date 1611 survive in front of the Totnes Guildhall. Cotton explained that the ring had been presented to Katherine (or as spelt by Cotton, Catherine), the grand-daughter of Richard Lee to mark the town’s gratitude. The initials on the ring ‘RL to T and T to CL’ can thus be read as ‘Richard Lee to Totnes and Totnes to Katherine Lee’. Cotton also stated that a pair to this ring had been made for Katherine’s sister Christian Lee, but that the fate of this ring was unknown.

Research by Totnes Museum has shed further light on the making of the two rings. It appears that the town granted an annuity to Richard Lee (1560-1620) of £15 for ten years, probably to repay the money he had advanced for the Church Walk. This is recorded in the borough accounts of 1652, first as the record of a payment to Mr Everleigh:

“1651, 6 Jan To Mr Eveleigh to make up £4 due to him for 2 Rings given to the daughters of Mr Ricd Lee, 6s, who had also £3 14s out of th’arrears of Hackers house £3 14s.” [fig 3]

A subsequent notice from March 20th, 1652 records the:

“Release of the money payable out of the (Town) lands for the Walk before the Church gate.” The records note that a ‘deed Poll was signed & sealed by Chr. Savery of Shilston, Servington Savery, his son & heir; Katherine his wife; & Christian Lee of Compton, spinster; which after reciting a grant by the Mayor & Burgesses, dated June 2nd 1612, to Richard Lee of an annuity of £15 for 10 years, declares that, in consideration of a payment of £50, this annuity has been surrendered’.

It would therefore appear that Richard Lee lent money to the town to finance the building of the exchange or Church Walk. When the final instalment of the annuity was paid in 1652 (perhaps delayed by the disruption of the English Civil War), a pair of rings was made for his grand-daughters, painted with figures of merchants standing under the Church Walk and an inscription to mark the occasion.

The fine condition of the rings suggests that they were considered family heirlooms from an early date. The ring marked ‘KL’, now in the V&A was made for Katherine Lee and on her death in 1679 passed to her son Christopher Savery and hence through the Savery family. In 1743, her descendant Servington Savery left ‘one gold ring enamel’d which was given by the town of Totnes to my grandmother Savery’. This ring passed through the Savery family and was recorded in an unpublished family history by John Savery in 1808 but disappears from view until 1968 when the V&A bought it from a jeweller’s shop. The other ring, made for Christian Lee, who died childless in 1660, went to her nephew Richard Savery, Katherine’s younger son. It was in the Savery family in 1850 when Cotton wrote his account. In 1935 it was offered for sale and acquired by Totnes Museum.

Although this ring has been in the Museum collection since 1968, the figures painted in enamel around the hoop and the inscription 'RL to T and T to KL' puzzled historians until, in 2011, an enquiry from Totnes Museum to the V&A revealed that the ring had a pair. The Totnes museum ring had been preserved in the Savery family since its making in 1652 along with the fascinating story of its origins.

Both rings were commissioned by the Devon town to present to the grand-daughters of the former mayor, Richard Lee, as the final repayment of a loan to build the Church Walk, a granite colonnade under which merchants met and carried out their business. The Church Walk has now gone but some of the columns can still be seen outside the town's Guildhall. Images of the Church Walk show that the stone arches painted on the rings are the same as the surviving columns and the figures can therefore be identified as town merchants carrying out their transactions. The inscription on the V&A ring can now be read as 'Richard Lee to Totnes and Totnes to Katherine Lee'. The Totnes ring is thus 'Richard Lee to Totnes and Totnes to Christian Lee'. A bill in the town archives records a payment for the rings '1651, 6 Jan - to Mr Everleigh to make up £4 due to him for 2 Rings given to the daughters of Mr Ricd Lee'.

The rings can be traced through the wills of the Savery family into which Katherine Lee married. They were obviously treasured and treated as family heirlooms. Despite the fragility of the enamel decoration, both rings survive as unique examples of civic gifts and as an important part of the history of Totnes.

M.15-1968