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Antique rings, Medieval rings, Renaissance rings | Others rings
Roman intaglios and cameos

Early medieval ring, gold and niello. Saxon art, 9th century.中世のリング

Extremely rare gold saxon ring with a flat circular bezel engraved with a champlevé zoomorphic pattern inlaid with black niello, displaying a fantastic beast, the sinuous body shown in profile with only two legs visible, Y-shaped paws, turned-back head, biting it’s own tail. The hoop is formed by a single wire twisted like a torque, a typical early saxon design, the shoulders terminating in foliate motifs.
Very good condition. The original niello is restaured and protected by a varnish.
England, Northumbria (?), saxon period, probably late 9th.

RESERVED

This is one of the two types of Saxon rings that have survived, called Saxon rings with bezels, datable because several examples are associated with great Saxon kings and bishops, whose inscriptions they bear. The most famous is the ring of the ninth-century King of Wessex, Ethelwulf, father of Alfred the Great (Oman, 1974, no. 6A). Some have shaped bezels, others have articulated bezels of different forms, and all have in common their decoration with niello work. Approximately a dozen examples are known, mostly in British museums. They remain rare. The present ring is simpler than the above-recorded examples.
The fantastic animal pattern can be found at the same period on the liturgical books of Northumbria and Hibernia (the Book of Lindisfarne, the Book of Burrow…) and also on metalwork. The closest parallel given by Maire Mac Dermott is with the Tarnotie strap-tag, found in old Northumbria (south of Scotland) and dated 875-900 A.D.

Refs. For discussion of the datation, see Maire Mac Dermott, The Kells Crosier, in Archaeologia of the Society of antiquaries of London, vol. XCVI, 1955, p. 59-114.
For comparisons, see London, Victoria & Albert Museum, M. 277-1920 and 629-1871 (Oman, 1930, nos. 226 and 228); and London, British Museum (Dalton, 1912, no. 180); further reading (with additional bibliography), Charles Oman, British Rings 800-1914, 1974. ref. 6D, 7A and D, 9A-B

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