In the same collection is a ‘memento mori’ ring, of bronze, with a tablet on the hoop, half an inch square, and edges serrated; a death’s-head is engraved upon it with the above inscription. Rings with the same device and words are alluded to by Beaumont and Fletcher in the ‘Chances:’
I’ll keep it as they keep death’s-heads in rings,
To cry ‘memento’ to me.
Rings engraved with skulls and skeletons were not, however, necessarily mourning-rings, but were worn also by persons who affected gravity. Luther wore a gold ring with a small death’s-head in enamel, which is now preserved in Dresden (see ‘Remarkable Rings’). Biron, in ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost,’ refers to ‘a death’s face in a ring.’
Mr. Fairholt describes a ring on which two figures of skeletons surround the finger and support a small sarcophagus. The ring is of gold, enamelled, the skeletons being made still more hideous by a covering of white enamel. The lid of the sarcophagus is also enamelled, with a Maltese cross in red on a black ground studded with gilt hearts. This lid is made to slide off and display a very minute skeleton lying within (Londesborough Collection).
In the ‘Recueil des Ouvrages d’Orfévrerie,’ by Gilles l’Egaré, published in the early part of the reign of Louis XIV., is an unusually good design for a mourning-ring with skull decorations.
In the Londesborough Collection is a fine specimen of a mourning-ring of the early part of the last century.
Memorial and mortuary rings.
In digging a grave in or near Ripon some years ago a sexton discovered an ancient signet-ring, on which was engraved a dormouse coiled up in sleep, with an inscription around it, in black-letter characters, ‘Wake me no man.’ A similar ring is said to have been turned up in a churchyard near Scarborough.
At a meeting of the Royal Archæological Institute in April 1875, Mr. Fortnum, F.S.A., exhibited a mourning-ring of Queen Anne, the bezel of which is formed as a coffin, containing a mat of the Queen’s hair, over which are the crowned initials A. R., and a death’s-head and cross-bones beneath a piece of crystal. The hoop is enamelled black, with the inscription ‘Anna . Regina . pia . felix,’ in letters of gold; inside is engraved, ‘Nat. 5 Feb. 1664. Inaug. 8 March 1702. Obt. 1 August 1714.’