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Description: | Complete 15th Century, silver, iconographic finger ring. This ring weighs 4.99g and has an external diameter of 21.04mm (though the hoop is bent out of shape) and the hoop is 1.46mm thick. The integrally cast bezel was once square in plan, but is now distorted into a lozenge shape. It is 13.9mm wide and is 7.6mm high. It is decorated with a crudely incised image of St Anthony the Abbot, with a tau-shaped cross at his shoulder,between incised horizontal lines to the top and bottom of the figure. The shoulders of the hoop begin as broad as the bezel, but the hoop continues to taper in size to 4.84mm at its narrowest point. The shoulders are decorated with an impressed foliate design of three vertical V shapes on a central ‘stalk’ flanked by an oval shaped impression, slightly above, to either side. Below these, further along the hoop, and mirrored either side, is an oval impression below which are two vertical V shapes, one on top of the other, giving the impression of a flower. The rest of the hoop is plain, as is its inner surface. Ward et al in the 1981 publication ‘The Ring’, give similar, though much more decorative, examples of 15th century iconographic rings. They state that cruder carving often occurs on silver rings, as opposed to gold examples, and it would seem likely that this ring fits with that tradition. The Tau cross was one of the symbols of St Anthony who was thought to protect against the disease known as divine fire, or St Anthony's fire, the medieval name for ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus which develops on grain, notably rye, causing nerve paralysis, cramps and muscular contractions often known as St Vitus's dance. The ring would have been considered to offer protection against this disease. | Subjects: | Iconographic | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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