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Home > Auctions > 21st February 2017 > Medieval Massive Gold Iconographic Glove Ring with Saints

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LOT 0448

Estimate
GBP (£) 6,000 - 8,000
EUR (€) 7,120 - 9,490
USD ($) 7,720 - 10,300


MEDIEVAL MASSIVE GOLD ICONOGRAPHIC GLOVE RING WITH SAINTS
SPANISH, 16TH CENTURY AD
1 1/4" (29 grams, 29mm overall, 23.93 x 25.21mm internal diameter (approximate size British Z+5, USA 14 3/4, Europe 35.08, Japan 33)).

A flat-section gold hoop formed as three discoid panels with interstitial square panels and larger bezel; the square panels each with high-relief expanding-arm cross; the discoid panels each with the symbol of an Evangelist, a winged nimbate ox for St. Luke, a winged nimbate man with scroll for St. Matthew, a nimbate eagle for St. John, a winged lion for St. Mark; bezel with pelleted border, reserved image on a hatched field of Corpus Christi with cross and banner above marked 'inri' in blackletter script, two nimbate flanking female figures.

PROVENANCE:
From an important jewellery collection; by descent through the Smigielski family; formerly with the current owner's grandfather Franz Retyk; acquired in Europe by her father or his brother in Belgium during the 1920s.

PUBLISHED:
Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate.

LITERATURE:
Cf. Hindman, S. et al. Toward an Art History of Medieval Rings: A Private Collection, London, 2007, item 27.

FOOTNOTES:
Devotional iconographic finger rings were a popular class of personal jewellery in the later medieval period. The present ring features heavy religious imagery.

CONDITION