renaissance and later rings
It was the custom to arrange finger rings upon a rod when not in use or when exposed for exhibition in the jeweller's shop, and in paintings it is no uncommon thing to see a line of rings of various patterns run on what appears to be a roll of parchment; as in the annexed illustration—a cut from a Herbal published at Frankfort in 1536. Rings arranged thus may be seen in Ghirlandaio's portrait of Costanza de' Medici, belonging to Mr. Salting; in the "Legend of St. Godeberta" by Petrus Christus; in Gerard David's portrait of a goldsmith at Vienna; in the "Banker and his Wife" by Quentin Matsys in the Louvre, and in similar pictures where a jeweller or a banker is represented.
Rings on a roll of parchment. From Kreuterbuch (Frankfort, 1536).
In Henry VIII's inventory of 1527 we find: "Upon a finger-stall, seven rings, one a ruby, another an emerald, and a turquoise, another a table diamond, another a triangular diamond, another a rocky diamond"; also in 1530: "A roll with thirty-nine Paris rings, with small stones." In the Duke of Newcastle's comedy The Country Captain (1649) mention is made of an extravagant person "who makes his fingers like jewellers' cards to set rings upon." In the Pinakothek, Munich, is a most interesting picture by Paris Bordone representing a jeweller with a quantity of his treasures lying on a table before him. Every item is painted with extreme care. Twelve massive finger rings, arranged in three rows of four, are displayed in an oblong ring-box, just in the same manner as one might expect to find them in a jeweller's shop of the present day. A somewhat similar picture by Lorenzo Lotto, in the Kaufmann Collection in Berlin, represents a jeweller holding in his left hand a box full of rings and in his right a single specimen.
By far the most attractive of the fine engravings of jewellery by Pierre Woeiriot of Lorraine is his beautiful set of rings published in 1561 under the title of Livre d'aneaux d'orfévrerie. M. Foulc, of Paris, is generally credited with the possession of the only complete set of these engravings. A perfect specimen of the work is, however, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, to which it was bequeathed by the well-known antiquary Francis Douce in 1834. It comprises forty plates, each containing one or more rings to the number of ninety-six, and furnishes striking examples of the taste and inventive genius then bestowed on these minute objects. Nevertheless, engravings can convey but small idea of the colour effect, and the wonderful charm that the actual rings possess. In order to fully appreciate them, one must visit the three great English collections of them now accessible to the public: the South Kensington Collection, containing the greater part of that formed by Edmund Waterton; the Drury Fortnum Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; and above all, the collection in the British Museum, which includes the splendid series bequeathed by Sir A. W. Franks, in which were absorbed the Braybrooke, Londesborough, and some minor cabinets, together with the best from the Soden Smith Collection, as well as the choicest from the Pichon and from many foreign sales.
BRACELETS
The bracelet during this period plays a scarcely more prominent part than it did in the Middle Ages, and probably owing to the same reason; for in Renaissance times the fashion of leaving the arms bare was not in favour, and the long sleeves that fell over the hand were retained. A few examples presented by pictures lead to the supposition that bracelets consisted of beads of amber or jet separated by balls of gold, or of rows of cameos. Catarina Cornaro in her portrait by Titian in the Uffizi wears a bracelet upon her wrist over the sleeve, while the portrait of a lady by Cranach in the National Gallery shows that the sleeves were occasionally slashed at the wrists to exhibit the bracelets beneath them, just as were the fingers of gloves for the purpose of displaying rings.