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WELCOME TO A WORLD OF ANTIQUE RINGS
The Beginning
I began this adventure in 1977 by purchasing a couple of antique rings, one was genuine and second was a bad reproduction. I had no idea what I was looking at when I visited antique shops and antique fairs. I looked for information in books about dating rings from the design but found very little, just a few photographs of nineteenth century rings but no specific details of the design elements. I decided that I should do my own research from scratch.
I visited Mr. Charles Oman who had retired as head of the Department of Metalwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He advised me that the museums in Britain had few rings and I would do better just visiting the shops. Some jewellers allowed me to make sketches of the rings in their shops and I spent many wonderful Saturdays studying many beautiful rings. I was able to use the Bodleian Library in Oxford where I found a number of 19th century books and articles that helped me date 19th century rings. As the body of my research grew, I was encouraged to put my findings into book form so that others could readily learn about nineteenth-century ring designs. The photographs have recorded for posterity some of the many rings that were made in the 1800s and the first decade of the 1900s. I was once asked why I had included rather insignificant rings in the book, and my reply was because the rings had been made: I wanted to include examples of the best and the poorest. I have written the book that I needed when I started collecting rings thirty years ago.
The Conclusion - A book on Nineteenth Century Rings.
Copyright of photographs - Verlaine Davies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1800 to 1820
1820 to 1840
1840 to 1860
1860 to 1885
1885 to 1910
Betrothal, Wedding and Keeper Rings
Commemorative and Historical Rings
Mourning Rings
Care, Cautions and Repairs
Glossary
Bibliography
144 pages with over 400 colour illustrations
There is a detailed description of each ring beneath each photograph.
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