Rings for the finger : $b from the earliest known times to the present, with full descriptions of the origin, early making, materials, the archæology, history, for affection, for love, for engagement, for wedding, commemorative, mourning, etc.Kunz, George Frederick
History
Rings for the finger : $b from the earliest known times to the present, with full descriptions of the origin, early making, materials, the archæology, history, for affection, for love, for engagement, for wedding, commemorative, mourning, etc.
Kunz, George Frederick
Rings; Rings -- Folklore
Rings entirely of precious-stone material, or “hololith” rings, have
been found at Mycenæ, one of jasper and another of rock-crystal, and
a carnelian ring was discovered in a tomb in southern Russia. Each of
these bears an engraved design. Two carnelian rings are in the British
Museum.
Chalcedony rings, that is, rings entirely formed of this stone, while
quite rare, are represented by a few specimens. We describe elsewhere
the so-called betrothal ring of the Virgin at Perugia,[164] and the
British Museum has a large example of a chalcedony ring, with the hoop
rounded on the outer side, and a raised bezel that has been roughly cut
so as to indicate a human head, some scratches marking the hair. The
work is late Roman and the inscription shows that it was made for some
adherent of the Gnostic sect.[165]
A large ring, entirely of rock crystal, shows on the oval flattened
surface of the upper part a curious combination of the “Tau Cross,”
with superposed “chrisma,” and with a serpent twined about it,
recalling the brazen serpent of Moses, the view of which restored
health to the diseased; the Greek letters, _alpha_ and _omega_, “the
beginning and the end,” complete this interlacing of Old and New
Testament emblems; the doves facing the cross are the faithful to whom
the Cross of Christ brings salvation.[166] Another entire crystal ring
bears on its flat face a design of somewhat similar import, with,
however, the curious difference that the lower end of the cross is
supported on a little Cupid, on either side of which figure is a
dove.[167]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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