[Illustration: Mourning ring of gold. The head has the form of a coffin with skull and cross-bones on the lid. When this is lifted a heart is disclosed within. The hoop has two wires. On the sides of the coffin is inscribed: “_Hier ist die Ruhe_” (Here is rest). German. Eighteenth Century Albert Figdor Collection, Vienna] [Illustration: Massive silver mourning ring inscribed in Old French, _dort couat_ (rest in peace). Found at Huy near Statte, Belgium. French. Fifteenth Century Albert Figdor Collection, Vienna] It is said that only one episcopal ring from Anglo-Saxon times has been preserved in England. This relic forms part of the Waterton Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum; it is of gold, nielloed, and shows the letters of the name Ahlstan. This name was borne by a Bishop of Sherborne who held the office from 824 to 867 A.D., his death occurring four years before the accession of Alfred the Great.[436] Niello is a mixture of silver, copper, lead, crude sulphur, and borax; frequently a little antimony is added. The mixture is fused and pressed into the design engraved upon a silver plate; when it has cooled off it forms a deep black, brilliant, and tough, though not hard, substance, like an enamel. The antimony on cooling, spreads slightly, thus obviating any danger of undue contraction of the alloy, which might fail to fill out the design exactly; occasionally, however, the antimony expands unequally, producing some slight irregularities of outline or surface. Sometimes the alloy is applied to the silver background of the design, instead of to the design itself, so that the latter appears white against a rich dark foundation. This variety of enamelling was already used in Roman times; in our day it is most extensively employed in Russia, where very beautiful work of the kind is done, the lines being of hair-like fineness and delicacy. In 886, at the degradation of two bishops who had been consecrated without the consent of their metropolitan, their episcopal vestments were rent, their croziers broken on their heads, and their episcopal rings rudely snatched from their fingers. Here, as in cases of military degradation, the ignominious removal of the insignia of rank served to give public emphasis to the sentence passed upon the condemned.[437]