The ring of Alhstan, at once the earliest episcopal finger ring and the first in chronological order of these inscribed gold rings, was found in 1753 at Llys-fæn, in the county of Carnarvonshire. It was one of the chief treasures of the famous collection of finger rings formed by the late Edmund Waterton, and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The initials of its owner are inscribed in niello upon four circular compartments, separated by four lozenge-shaped compartments also inlaid with niello ([Pl. XIII, 9]).
The most famous of all English rings—"une pièce excessivement précieuse," says M. Fontenay, "par son originalité et son caractère"—is that of Ethelwulf, King of Wessex. It is in the form of a bishop's mitre with only one peak, and bears the inscription
above which are two peacocks pecking at a tree. The legend and subject are reserved in gold upon a nielloed ground. The ring was picked up in its present bent condition in 1780 by a labourer in a field at Laverstoke, near Salisbury, where it had been pressed out of a cart-rut. It is now in the British Museum ([Pl. XIII, 5]).
The third of this remarkable series of inscribed rings is that of Ethelswith, Queen of Mercia, daughter of Ethelwulf. It has a circular bezel, in the middle of which is a rude representation of an Agnus Dei engraved in relief with a background of niello. The inner side of the bezel is incised with the inscription
eathelsvith regna. This beautiful ring was found near Aberford, in Yorkshire, about the year 1870, and came into the possession of Sir A. W. Franks, who bequeathed it to the British Museum ([Pl. XIII, 7]).
Several other Saxon rings are preserved in the British Museum. Among them is one with a plain hoop and beaded edges, bearing around it in gold letters on a nielloed ground an inscription recording the name of the owner, Ethred, and the maker Eanred. It was found in Lancashire, and bequeathed to the museum by Sir Hans Sloane in 1753. Another ring (found near Peterborough in the River Nene) is peculiar for having two bezels opposite each other. Both sides of the hoop and each bezel are engraved with interlaced designs inlaid with niello. The bezels are each flanked by three small beads of gold—a characteristic ornamentation of a certain class of Teutonic and Merovingian rings, termed by the French bagues à trois grains. In the Victoria and Albert Museum is a silver ring of unusual form. It has an oval bezel 1¼ inches in length, engraved with convoluted ornament in five divisions, the centre being filled with a serpent-headed monster. It was found in the Thames at Chelsea in 1856. A type of ring which occurs more than once is formed of a hoop, which widens gradually into a large oval bezel ornamented with bands of rich plaited goldwork. One of these rings, found at Bossington, near Stockbridge, is in the Ashmolean Museum. It has in the centre a male portrait surrounded by the inscription, nomen ehlla fid in xpo (My name is Ella; my faith is in Christ).
More remarkable, perhaps, than any of the above, on account of the peculiar beauty of its workmanship, is a gold ring in the possession of Lord Fitzhardinge, and preserved, together with the Hunsdon jewels, at Berkeley Castle. It has a large bezel of quatrefoil form. In the centre is a raised circular boss ornamented with a cross or wheel-shaped design in beaded gold. Radiating from this centre are four heads of monsters, inlaid with thin lines of niello, and having projecting eyes formed of dots of dark blue and dark brown glass or enamel. The hoop of the ring, of considerable girth, is hexagonal in section. At the junction of its ends at the back of the bezel, immediately behind the monsters' ears, it is finished with a graduated wire of filigree, terminating with three small balls. The ring dates from about the tenth century. Nothing is known concerning its discovery. It is probably Saxon, but may be of Irish origin ([Pl. XIII, 10]).
Beyond these finger rings and the enamelled jewellery, we possess few other examples of later Saxon ornaments; yet there exist a small number, which, though executed somewhat after the manner of the older jewels, probably belong to this later period of Saxon art. Among such ornaments is a necklace from Desborough, Northants, and now in the British Museum. It is formed of beads of spirally coiled gold wire. Circular pendants, having one side convex and the other flat, alternate with gold pendants of various shapes and sizes, set with garnets. From the centre of the necklace hangs a cross ([Pl. XII, 1]).