FOREWORD
The present volume aims to offer in attractive and convenient form everything that is of importance and interest in regard to finger-rings, from the fabled ring of Prometheus down to the latest productions of the goldsmiths and jewellers of our day.
The subject offers a striking illustration of the wonderful diversity of form, decoration and usage, that the skill and fancy of man have been able to realize in the case of the little circlet constituting a ring. To make this clearer to the reader, a division in accordance with the general history and the special uses of rings has seemed more effective than any attempt to separate all the material along geographical or chronological lines.
One of the earliest uses to which rings were put was for the impression of an engraved design or device upon letters or documents, as the sign-manual of the wearer. From the time of the ancient Egyptians, this use prevailed in various parts of the world and many of the most striking rings of this type are described and figured here. Allied to these, and in some cases identical with them, are the rings given as marks of official dignity and rank.
A most important class are the rings bestowed upon and worn by the higher ecclesiastics. Papal rings, among which the most noted is the “Fisherman’s Ring,” rings for cardinals and for bishops, and also occasionally in former times, for abbots, were and are still regarded with special reverence in the Roman and Greek churches. The usage of wearing rings of this type dates far back in the history of Christianity. Many examples of these rings are given, as also of others bearing Christian emblems, and of those worn by nuns, and by widows who had vowed never to re-wed.
Closely connected with these religious rings, are the betrothal and wedding rings. Here it has seemed best to group together the available data, since the line of demarcation between engagement and wedding rings, though clearly enough marked to-day, is not easy to draw in regard to earlier times. A very full selection of mottoes has been added, some of which might still be used; the greater number, however, belong to a past age, upon the sentiments of which they cast interesting side lights.
Rings as charms and talismans form a class apart. Often the peculiar form of the circlet was conceived to have a symbolic virtue, but more frequently the talismanic quality depended upon some curious engraved device, upon the stones set in the rings, or upon a mystic or religious inscription. Rings of healing were talismans valued for their special power to cure disease; the “cramp rings,” dated in legend back to the time of Edward the Confessor, were notable in this series.
The rings of famous men and women will always be prized as mementos, and in the various chapters of this book a large number of them will be found, both rings of the mighty dead and those of distinguished living persons; among these latter we are happy to be able to produce an illustration of the inscription of President Wilson’s ring from an impression of his seal courteously made by his own hand. It shows his name engraved in Pitmanic shorthand.
Our American Indians have also made their contribution to the art of ring-making, occasionally in the earlier centuries, and more especially in more recent times. Notably the Navajos of New Mexico have exhibited a considerable degree of skill in this direction. Much new information on this subject will be found in the present work.
How rings are made by our jewellers of to-day, more especially by the accurate and varied mechanical methods now employed for their production, is concisely treated in a supplementary chapter. While machine-made rings can scarcely be expected to equal those executed by the hand of the true artist-goldsmith, those now produced are nevertheless objects of beauty and adornment.
A ring is a symbol to which great interest is attached from the cradle to the grave. Frequently, a natal stone, or a ring set with a natal stone, is given to a child at its birth. When the child is baptized it receives the talismanic gem of the guardian angel. At confirmation the gem of the week is given. At graduation from school or college, a class ring is bestowed. Finally, on the announcement of an engagement, a ring set with any one of the choicer precious stones is selected for the fiancée. Thus each important epoch in early life has its appropriate memento, which will recall the memory of it in after years.
As very full indications as to the literature have been given in the footnotes, it has not seemed necessary to append the numerous titles in the form of a bibliography.
The author’s thanks are due to the following persons, who have courteously imparted much valuable information:
Hon. Peter T. Barlow; Miss Ada M. Barr; W. Gedney Beatty; Theodoor de Boog, Museum of the American Indian; Dr. Stewart Culin, Brooklyn Institute; Robert W. De Forrest; Mrs. Alexander W. Drake; Dr. Gustavus A. Eisen; Prof. Richard Gottheil, Columbia University; Dr. L. P. Gratacap, Curator, Dept. of Mineralogy, American Museum of Natural History; Right Rev. David H. Greer, Bishop of New York; Mrs. Isabel Hapgood; Prof. A. V. Williams Jackson, Columbia University; William H. Jones; Minor C. Keith; Dr. F. A. Lucas, Director, American Museum of Natural History; B. Mazza; Edward T. Newell, President, American Numismatic Society; Prof. John Dyneley Prince, Columbia University; Mrs. Annie R. Schley; Dr. George C. Stone; J. Alden Weir, President, National Academy of Design; Dr. Clark Wissler, Curator, Dept. of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History; Theodore M. Woodland; Walter C. Wyman, and also the late William M. Chase; Dr. Charles S. Braddock, Jr.; Prof. Friedrich Hirth, Columbia University; Sidney P. Noe, Librarian, and Howland Wood, Curator, American Numismatic Society; Rev. Dr. John P. Peters and Rev. Father William J. Stewart, all of New York City.
Prof. Cyrus Adler, Dropsie College, Philadelphia; Dr. Hector Alliot, South Western Museum, Los Angeles, Cal.; Dr. F. H. Barrow, Director, Golden Gate Museum, Los Angeles, Cal.; Prof. Hiram Bingham, Yale University; Frank S. Daggett, Director, Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles, Cal.; Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, Secretary, National American Indian Memorial Asso., Philadelphia; Dr. Arthur Fairbanks, Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.; Franciscan Fathers, St. Michael’s Mission, Arizona; Prof. L. C. Glenn, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; Dr. F. W. Hodge, Ethnologist-in-charge, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.; Prof. W. H. Holmes, Head Curator, Dept. of Anthropology, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.; Dr. Walter Hough, Acting Head Curator, Dept. of Anthropology, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.; Prof. Morris Jastrow, Jr., University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Berthold Laufer, Curator of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Waldo Lincoln, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.; Prof. George Grant McCurdy, Curator of Anthropology, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University; Dr. William C. Mills, Curator and Librarian, Chicago Archæological and Historical Soc.; Edward S. Morse, Director, Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.; Dr. Warren K. Moorehead, Curator, Dept. American Archæology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.; Ostby & Barton Co., Providence, R. I.; Admiral Robert E. Peary, Washington, D. C.; Dr. R. Rathbun, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.; William Riker, Newark, N. J.; Oliver A. Roberts, Librarian, Masonic Temple, Boston, Mass.; Prof. Austin T. Rogers, Leland Stanford Jr. University, Stanford University, Cal.; Dr. F. J. V. Skiff, Director, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Prof. Friedrich Starr, University of Chicago; Rev. John Baer Stoudt, Northampton, Pa.; Ex-President William H. Taft, New Haven, Conn.; J. P. Tumulty, Secretary to President Wilson, Washington, D. C.; the late Dr. William Hayes Ward, Assyriologist, South Berwick, Mass.
W. W. Blake, Mexico City; A. W. Feavearyear, London, England; R. Friedländer & Sohn, Berlin; Prabha Karavongu, Siamese Legation, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Isabel Moore, Azores; M. Georges Pelissier, Paris, France; Dr. William Flinders Petrie, Egyptologist, Hampstead, England; Sir Charles Hercules Read, Curator, Dept. British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography, British Museum; Dr. Leonard Spencer, Curator, Mineralogical Dept., British Museum (Natural History); C. J. S. Thompson, Curator, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, London, England; Sir Herbert Tree, London, England; Dr. T. Wada, Tokio, Japan; Herr Leopold Weininger, Vienna, and also Dr. Albert Figdor, Vienna, and U. S. Consul W. Bardel, St. Michael, Azores.
The illustrations of rings in the British Museum are mostly from one or the other of the two exceedingly comprehensive catalogues of rings published by this museum: “Finger Rings, Greek, Etruscan and Roman,” by F. H. Marshall, and “Finger Rings, Early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Mediæval, and Later,” by O. M. Dalton. In each volume the section devoted to a special description of each ring is preceded by a most scholarly and enlightening introductory essay.
G. F. K.
New York City,
November, 1916
